Reading the Deathly Hallows with Ron and Hermione
by WizardDragon
Summary: Ron and Hermione were racing through the Room of Requirement, fiendfyre roaring right behind them when they were consumed by a light and suddenly they were in Grimmauld Place before 5th year? My take on the characters reading the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book. Romione, Hinny, and Remus/Tonks!
1. People From the Future

**Hi! This is my first story! I know this is an overused plot but I wanted to try my own so give it a chance. I am going to try and finish this story. Thanks to my friend tealgirl713 for double-checking and giving me some input : ).**

**A/N: I do not own any of the Harry Potter books or any of the characters.**

May 2, 1998

Ron POV

As soon as I saw the flames I knew I was in trouble. Racing up the isle with Crabbe right behind me, I could see Harry and Hermione right ahead of me. As I ran I grabbed Hermione's hand and then we were running together. Harry was right behind us and I couldn't see Malfoy and his git friends anymore. I heard Harrys footsteps go down the aisle next to the one Hermione and I were currently sprinting down. The heat of the flames was burning my back and I could feel sweat streaming down my face.

I glanced over at Hermione. She just bloody kissed me in front of harry and now they were running for their lives…again. I chanced a glance behind me as we turned a corner. Bloody hell. We were being chased by a dragon made out of fiendfyre. My lungs were burning and my muscles ached from running but I couldn't stop and I refused to let go of Hermione's hand. I just got her and I wasn't going to let her go now. I couldn't see the door anywhere and the flames were getting closer.

Harry ran out from an aisle on my left. And shot water from his want at the flames but it just evaporated. The fire was getting closer and I could feel my hair and clothes sticking to my body. This bloody fire was going to be the end of us. Hermione gripped my hand tighter and I was reminded that there's still a chance we were going to survive and I was going to hold on to that chance.

I could feel the deluminator against my leg in my pocket and I remembered the little ball of light that brought me back to Hermione and harry. Right now that ball of light was my hope of getting out of this bloody room and surviving this war with Hermione and all my family and harry.

I glanced at Hermione again and mentally cursed Lavender and Krum. If it wasn't for them and my stupidity we could have been together last year. And on the run in that bloody tent. They wanted to get together but agreed that they should remain friends for Harry's sake. I've caught her staring at me more than one time throughout the time they had been on the run and once she realized that I noticed she would blush and look away. Merlin I loved it when she blushed. You prat! Stop thinking about Hermione and run, for Merlin's sake!

The three of us sprinted down an aisle when it happened. A bright gold light started to wrap around Hermione and I. Before I could give it a second thought, the light surrounded us and Hermione and I were gone.

August 8, 1995

"**I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once.**

"**Very well," said Mrs. Weasley, her voice cracking. "Ginny - Ron - Hermione - Fred - George – I want you out of this kitchen, now."**

**There was instant uproar.**

"**We're of age!" Fred and George bellowed together.**

"**If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" shouted Ron.**

"**Mum, I want to hear!" wailed Ginny**

Suddenly, there was a red light, sort of like a patronus, hanging above the center of the table near the middle. Everyone froze their arguing and stared at it in a mixture of shock and mystification.

"Wands out!" growled moody and everyone did so and pointed them at the light.

It suddenly expanded to the size of the beds in the dormitories at Hogwarts. Everyone stood there for a few moments as the red hue filled the room before Sirius, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Arthur, Moody, Lupin and the twins took a cautious step forward but everyone jumped as two figures holding hands suddenly burst out of the light and ran off the table, landing hard on the floor. A few flames were seen coming out of the red light before it disappeared. The room was filled with a strong sent that was a mixture of smoke, sweat, and lake water. The two figures on the floor were gasping for breath and coughing.

"Stupify!" Mad- Eye said and the coughing and gasping stopped.

Moody hobbled over to the figures with his wand drawn and pointed at the two people. His one real eye widened in surprise. He glanced over at the group of people pointing their wands the end of the table.

"Somebody get Dumbledore" he whispered roughly, "NOW!" Moody barked when nobody moved. Lupin pointed his wand at his throat, whispered something that no one could catch and then pointed his wand at the window. A silver wolf burst from his wand and shot out the window.

"Who is it Alastor?" Mrs. Weasley asked with curiosity and fear in her voice

"This is for the order only. Get the rest out of here." He said. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny were about to protest but stopped when they heard the sternness in his voice and the fierceness Mrs. Weasley's glare.

Fred POV

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked when we were one landing up from the first floor. George and I shared identical grins.

"do you want to find out?" we said when the door to Grimmauld Place open and Dumbledore and McGonagall walked into the kitchen. I pulled out an Extendable Ear.

"Brilliant" Hermione said

"Well, Well, Well is our little Miss. Know-it-all commenting on the brilliance of our idea?" George said with a smirk identicle to mine. I lowered the ear and when I hear them talking downstairs, I was glad that the order had slipped up this once.

"Merlin, Albus what is going on?" McGonagall said weakly. They all exchanged looks. McGonagall never sounded like that.

"But they're outside. How can there be two of them?" Sirius said seriously, for once.

"This must be bad" Ginny Whispered sounding slightly scared.

"They look at least of age. Maybe they are from the future" Lupin said

"It is interesting. It is also interesting that Messer's Weasley's, Potter and Misses Granger and Weasley are listening in with those ingenious listening devices they have created" Professor Dumbledore said.

"Run!" Ron whispered but it was too late. In a flash mum was standing in front of us yelling about how we were supposed to have gotten rid of all of our extendable ears. Lucky for all of our hearing, Lupin came in.

"Molly," he said with a sideways glance at the teens, "they're waking up. And most likely are going to be very confused. Dumbledore said that they should come." When mum started to protest Lupin quickly added on "They're going to find out eventually."

Right after mum sighed, a female scream and a bunch of bangs and shouts erupted from the kitchen. They all hurried down the stairs and entered the kitchen to find the kitchen nearly destroyed and the order lowering their wands away from two figures standing with their wands pointing at the order. All of us that hadn't been in the room with the order were, well, shell-shocked. There, standing against the wall were older versions of Ron and Hermione. Well, not too much older. Maybe two or three years at the most.

Ron was wearing grey pants and a red striped shirt with a red plaid hoodie over it. His usually bright ginger hair was a dull red and he was wayyy too thin, like he had gone months without a good meal. He was covered in grime and had a haunted look in his blue eyes. He had to be around his and George's age but he looked like he had been through hell and back. But, being friends with harry, he probably has.

Hermione was also very thin and had that haunted look in her eyes. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a pink zip up hoodie with a denim jacket over it. Her bushy hair, which looked like it was now more wavy than bushy, was in a braid and she had a small beaded bag slung over her shoulder. She was also covered in grime and looked like she had been through hell.

Both of them had their wands drawn and were in a dueling stance. I noticed that Ron was standing a little bit ahead of Hermione. I hope that it finally got through their thick heads that they like each other and they admitted it. Their eyes were scanning over everyone finally landing on something over my shoulder. I looked back and saw our Ron and Hermione pale and staring in shock at their other self's. Harry, along with everyone else in the room, was looking between the two Ron's and Hermione's like it was one of those muggle lennis matches that dad told me about once. The other Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. Finally, the other Hermione stepped forward.

"What's the date?" she asked as if she was scared of the answer

"August 8th." Dumbledore replied and the grime covered Ron and Hermione paled and glanced at each other.

"Er… What year?" the other Ron asked. His voice sounded a little bit deeper and more fragile but more mature.

"1995" Mum replied. She looked slightly afraid at how her youngest son was acting. What little colour that was left in their grime colored faces disappeared. Ron glanced around, his gaze lingering on Dumbledore. Hermione looked like she just figured out something, but still looked slightly confused.

"We are from May 2, 1998" the apparently-from-the-future-Hermione said "We must have somehow traveled to the past. What I don't know is-"but she was cut off as another flash of red light flashed on the table, about the spot future Ron and Hermione appeared. When it disappeared, there was a book lying on the table with a note on top of it. Dumbledore walked over to it and opened the note and read it out loud.

_Dear readers,_

_ You are most likely very confused about what's happening. We have sent this book to you to try to change the future. 1998 Ron and Hermione, we are sorry to have taken you from your time as we are sure that you are very anxious to know what happens. We have brought you to the past to help the past understand. _

_The readers should be:_

_Harry Potter_

_Ronald Weasley_

_Hermione Granger_

_Albus Dumbledore_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Sirius Black_

_Remus Lupin_

_Nymphadora Tonks_

_Alastor Moody_

_Molly Weasley_

_Arthur Weasley_

_Bill Weasley_

_Fred Weasley_

_George Weasley_

_Ginny Weasley_

_Future Ronald Weasley_

_Future Hermione Granger_

_Signed,_

_The Bishop, the Rook, and the Knight_

_(P.S. if you want to know something that isn't in the book but happened before when future Ron and Hermione come from, just ask) _

_(P.P.S. Future Ron and Hermione, put your wands down)_

Everyone stood there for a second in shocked silence before George and I broke it

"Wicked" we said

"Professor, what is the book called?" present Hermione asked and professor Dumbledore picked up the book.

"_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_" there was a clatter and my head, along with everyone else's in the room, looked at future Ron and Hermione who had shocked looks on their faces.

"Did you say the Deathly Hallows, professor?" Ron asked and Dumbledore nodded.

"It's a book about me?" Harry asked and Dumbledore once again nodded. Great. Now I'm sounding like a bloody book.

"But what are the deathly hallows?" Sirius asked

"It will explain" future Hermione said quickly. The haunted look in their eyes was stronger. George and I shared a glance. What the hell happened to our ickle ronniekins?

"Well, who's going to read first?" dad asked looking around the room

"I will" Dumbledore said. "I think that we can read one chapter than go to bed." He opened the book as everyone sat around the table. Mum and dad kept shooting worried glances at the future Ron and Hermione who were staring at the book.

"**The Dark Lord Ascending**" Dumbledore read


	2. The Dark Lord Ascending

"**The Dark Lord Ascending" **Dumbledore read and most everyone shared nervous glances

**The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.**

**"News?" asked the taller of the two.**

**"The best," replied Severus Snape.**

"Snape's there?" harry asked

"I believe so" Dumbledore said, staring at a point over Harry's left shoulder, making harry frustrated.

**The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.**

**"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight**

**"It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?" Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the men's way. Neither of them broke step: In silence both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.**

"How did they do that?" Fred and George asked

"The Dark Mark most likely" Said future Hermione

**The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a rustle somewhere to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again pointing it over his companion's head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.**

"**He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks …" Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.**

"Malfoy Manor" whispered future Ron and everyone, with the exception of future Hermione, who had paled and gripped his hand tighter, looked at him.

"How do you know that Ron?" Arthur asked slowly. Future Ron and Hermione looked at each other, sheet white as a bad memory flickered through their minds.

"It'll come up later in the book" future Hermione said in a small voice

**A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge a fountain was playing. **

**Gravel crackled beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.**

**The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, and then Snape turned the bronze handle.**

**The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. **

Future Hermione and Ron were getting paler every word and everyone was starting to notice. What the hell had happened to them there?

**Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below.**

"Oh God" Molly breathed "that poor person."

"do you know who it is?" Lupin asked the future duo.

"I have a hunch." Future Hermione whispered

**None of the people seated underneath this singular sight were looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.**

"Who is that?" Harry asked

"Malfoy" future Ron replied to the shock of mostly everyone. Voldemort was recruiting kids still in Hogwarts. Not good.

"**Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."**

**The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.**

"Voldemort" Harry said and both Ron's and the future Hermione flinched.

"Come on!" harry exclaimed "it's just a name! Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself!"

"Well said Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said

"**Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. **

"Snape's his right hand man!" Ron and many others yelled.

"How the hell did that happen?" Bill asked shock clear on his face and everyone else's.

"He killed…" future Hermione hesitated not wanting to revile something before it was in the book "someone very important to the Order"

"Who?" McGonagall asked as if she was afraid of the answer.

"I'm sure it will be in the book" Future Hermione said quietly

**"Yaxley – beside Dolohov."**

**The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.**

"**So?"**

"**My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."**

"That slimy bastard!" future Ron exclaimed and at the same time future Hermione said "So that's how they knew!"

"Ronald Weasley watch your language!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. Fred, George, Tonks, Sirius, Bill, Harry, and both Hermione's burst out laughing as future Ron's face turned red. Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling brightly and Mr. Weasley and Lupin had to stifle a chuckle.

**The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened; others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.**

**"Saturday … at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.**

"**Good. Very good. And this information comes –"**

"– **from the source we discussed," said Snape.**

"What source?" Mad-Eye barked

"I don't know" future Hermione said looking frustrated and all the teens gaped at her.

"Miss Know- it- all-"

"-Hermione Granger-"

"-doesn't know something?" Fred and George finished together

"The world must be ending "Ginny said grinning and everyone laughed except both Hermione's and Mrs. Weasley, who glared at her daughter.

"**My Lord."**

**Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him.**

"**My Lord, I have heard differently."**

**Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."**

"A false trail" McGonagall said

**Snape was smiling.**

"Merlin! Snape is smiling!" both Ron's exclaimed and stared at each other in shock while everyone was rolling in laughter.

"You stole our joke!" Fred and George yelled. When everyone calmes down, Dumbledore started to read.

"**My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."**

"**I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.**

"**If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."**

"This is not good." Tonks said "if they take the ministry, they might as well take the whole wizarding world."

"**The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.**

**Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.**

**"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy –"**

**Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.**

"**Where are they going to hide the boy next?"**

"**At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."**

"**Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"**

"not good." Tonks murmured

**Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.**

"**My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have – with difficulty, and after great effort – succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."**

"Extremely not good" Lupin said

**Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.**

"**It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."**

"**Yes – my Lord that is true – but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."**

"Scrimgeour?" Arthur said " isn't he the head of the auror department?"

Kingley and Tonks nodded.

"So Fudge is finally gone?" McGonagall said

"it seems so." Dumbledore said

Future Hermione leaned over to future Ron

"it's like we're not even here" she whispered and future Ron grinned

"**As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."**

"**We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. "We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."**

"This is bad." Tonks said and everyone agreed

"**He will not do either," said Snape. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."**

"**All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."**

**Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."**

"What?!" everyone shouted

**The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry Potter's continued existence. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.**

**"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be."**

**At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.**

"What was that?" Harry asked startled

"I have a hunch." Future Hermione said sharing a sad glance with future Ron. _Ollivander _they both thought.

**"Wormtail," said Voldemort,**

"That traitorous bastard!" Sirius yelled furiously making everyone jump. He looked at future Ron and Hermione "Is he dead in the future?"

"Yeah" future Ron said. Future Hermione and everyone else turned to him looking surprised and with questions burning in their eyes.

"What? When? How?" future Hermione asked quickly

"It will be in the book." He said giving her a look that said _I'll tell you later_.

**with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"**

"Prisioner?" Molly gasped "please tell me it's not one of you two." She said to the future teens and future Hermione answered.

"No. The prisoner isn't one of us" she said then shared a glance with future Ron. _This time_. They finished in their heads.

"**Yes, m-my Lord," gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had been sitting so low in his chair that it appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied. Now he scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room, leaving nothing behind him but a curious gleam of silver.**

"**As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter**

"_What?" _was the question echoing around the kitchen. Losing your wand was like losing an arm.

"It won't work properly for him." Future Ron said and added when he received confused looks "the wand has to be won in order to work to right."

"Since when did you become the wand expert?" Ginny asked and future Ron shrugged and fingered Wormtail's wand in his pocket. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hermione fingering Bellatrix's wand too.

**The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.**

**"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see … Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."**

"What happened to the Malfoys? They were high up in Voldemort." Moody asked

"Lucius Malfoy broke something, er, important that You-Know-Who wanted and Draco Malfoy failed to kill the person that Snape ended up killing." Future Hermione said

**Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.**

"Azkaban." Sirius said in disbelief "Lucius Malfoy, the man-who-could-do-no-wrong-in-Fudge's-mind, went to Azkaban."

"When the ruddy hell did that happen?" Ron asked and shrunk under his mother glare.

"Er," Future Hermione said "end of fifth year."

"When did he escape?" Harry asked

"The summer before we-"Future Hermione hesitated. She had almost said _before we were on the run_ "had our seventh year" she finished quickly.

"**My Lord?"**

"**Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."**

"**I …"**

**Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.**

"**What is it?"**

"**Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.**

"**And the core?"**

"**Dragon – dragon heartstring."**

"**Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. **

"Bad idea." Sirius said. "Voldemort will see it no doubt"

**The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously.**

"See." He said smugly

"Nobody disagreed with you, Sirius" Lupin said

"**Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?"**

**Some of the throng sniggered.**

"**I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late … What is it about my presence in your home that displaces you, Lucius?"**

"**Nothing – nothing, my Lord!"**

"**Such lies Lucius … "**

**The soft voice seemed to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath the table.**

"Nagini" Future Hermione said and everyone looked at her. She blushed and added "You- Know- Who's giant snake. It's about twelve feet long"

"I don't even want to know how you know that." Mrs. Weasley shivered.

**The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders: its neck the thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking.**

"That's a very accurate description." Future Hermione said thinking out loud.

**Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy.**

"**Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"**

"**Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it – we do."**

**To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.**

"**My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted with emotion,**

"**it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."**

**She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor;**

"Bellatrix" future Ron and Sirius spat.

"Bloody bitch." Future Hermione mumbled and everyone stared at her shocked.

"Did Hermione Granger just swear?" Fred and George and future Hermione blushed.

"Twice" Tonks laughed then abruptly stopped and looked confused "It never said her name. How did you two know what Bellatrix looks like? Isn't she in Azkaban?"

Future Ron and Hermione glanced at eachother.

"There was a mass breakout from Azkaban in January 1996" Future Hermione said "well, this January, I guess." she finished awkwardly and avoiding the question of how they knew who Bellatrix was.

**where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.**

"That's just nasty" Fred and George said

"that's Bellatrix for you" Sirius replied

"**No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."**

**Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight.**

Everyone had disgust plastered on their faces.

"**My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"**

"**No higher pleasure … even compared with the happy event that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"**

At this future Ron and Hermione grinned and everyone looked at them

"I take it you two know what it is?" Mrs. Weasley asked glad that Ron and Hermione, the future ones that is, finally looked happy. She noticed that they were sitting close to each other and she was sure that they were holding hands under the table. But they looked extremely thin and had dark circles under their eyes like they hadn't slept in days. And they were way too thin… she would have to get a few good meals in their bellies.

**She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.**

"**I don't know what you mean, my Lord."**

"**I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. **

"Me?" Tonks asked "What the hell happened?"

**She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."**

"_What?" _everyone, except future Ron and Hermione, gasped.

"Moony, we're family!" Sirius grinned and Lupin nodded looking as flabbergasted as Tonks, who was gaping at the book.

**There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The giant snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.**

**"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth. "We – Narcissa and I – have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."**

"**What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"**

"Cubs?" Lupin exclaimed and future Ron and Hermione shared a glance and a single thought ran through their heads: _Teddy._

**The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.**

"**Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."**

**And the laughter died at once.**

"Of course it did. They're all scared of Voldemort." Harry said

"**Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring, "You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."**

"**Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. "At the first chance!"**

"**You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world … we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true blood remain …"**

**Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.**

"**Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.**

**Snape raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!"**

"He won't" sighed Lupin.

**Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.**

"**And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. Now that the woman had woken, he seemed unable to look at her anymore.**

"**But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."**

"No!" everyone gasped, even the future couple.

"I take it you two didn't know?" McGonagall asked them and they shook their heads.

"We thought something had happened to her when the Prophet said she resigned but we weren't sure." future Ron said sadly.

**There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth cackled.**

"**Yes … Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles … how they are not so different from us … "**

"They aren't!" was the general outcry in the room

**One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again.**

"**Severus … please … please … "**

**"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defense of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance … She would have us all mate with Muggles … or, no doubt, werewolves … "**

"If we hadn't _'mated'_ with muggles, witches and wizards would be extinct" Sirius glared at the book.

**Nobody laughed this time. There was no mistaking the anger and contempt in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from him again.**

"**Avada Kedavra" **

"No!" Mrs. Weasley gasped. Both Hermione's sobbed into both Ron's shoulders, past Ron looking a bit startled, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Dumbledore eye lost its twinkle and Fred and George weren't smiling for once and were comforting Ginny.

**The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto the floor.**

"**Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the great snake swayed and slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood.**

"That is the end of the chapter." Dumbledore said softly, his gaze scanning the room.

"No more reading tonight." Molly said. "We'll read more in the morning" she added before the kids could protest.

"I agree. Are you coming Albus?" McGonagall asked and Albus Dumbledore shook his head.

"Yes I am. I believe I have to find a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. We do seem to go through them quite fast." Dumbledore said. Future Hermione looked up from Ron's shoulder and wiped her eyes.

"Professor," she said "whatever you do, **do not** let Dolores Umbridge teach Defense Against the Dark Arts" Lupin looked up at Umbridge's name.

"Umbridge? The one who hates half-breeds and drafted an anti-werewolf legislation?" Lupin said shocked.

"That's the one. She looks a bit like a pink toad" future Ron added as an afterthought causing Fred, George, Ginny, Ron and Sirius to snigger.

"I'm curious as to why shouldn't she teach" Dumbledore asked

"That's enough!" Mrs. Weasley nearly shouted and everyone stared at her in shock "it's nearly midnight and those two look dead on their feet! You can talk to them in the morning!"

"She's right Albus" Lupin said and Dumbledore nodded and looked at future Ron and Hermione.

"we will speak tomorrow." He said then with a crack, he, and McGonagall, were gone.

"Well that was… interesting" Ron said and everyone nodded.

"Now bed!" Mrs. Weasley said and everyone, except future Ron and Hermione and Mrs. Weasley trudged out of the room. "You two can bunk in the rooms with your past self's."

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other.

"Er, we were wondering if we could sleep in the sitting room right outside the kitchen" future Ron said slowly as if she would shoot down the option in a second. She sighed

"Fine." Mrs. Weasley said sternly, going into mother mode. "You two take a shower first, you smell like you swam in a filthy lake then ran through smoke."

"Close enough." Ron muttered as Mrs. Weasley shut the door to the kitchen, leaving them alone.


	3. In Memoriam

**Hello! Here's my next chapter, and yes, it includes Mrs. Weasley yelling. I might add Snape into the story in a few chapters. I have an idea on how I'm going to have him come in. Please review with any ideas you would like me to incorporate into future chapters and your opinions about the characters. I hope you enjoy!**

**A/N: No matter how much I wish I do, I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's brilliance of Harry Potter.**

**In Memoriam**

The next day, everyone from the past, including Dumbledore and McGonagall, were sitting around the table eating lunch. The book sat in the middle of the table by two empty seats.

"So, how does it feel to see yourself from the future?" Fred asked ending in a mysterious whisper.

"It's bloody mental." Ron said and Hermione smacked his arm.

"Ron! This is serious!" Hermione said exasperated

"No, I'm Sirius" Sirius said to the groans of everyone in the room.

"Keep your voices down! They're sleeping in the next room!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed

"Yeah, I can see them." Mad-eye said gruffly "Sleeping like they haven't slept in days but still are on guard. Those two would make good aurors."

"What do you mean 'on guard'" McGonagall asked

"Both of them haven't let go of their wands. I bet if you go and wake them up they will hex you before they're even fully awake." Mad eye said "_Constant vigilance_!" he barked

"What happened when they were woken up earlier when they first came?" Hermione asked

"Blew apart the kitchen they did." Mad eye said "started shooting spells at us until Dumbledore came. Then they just froze and stared shocked at us. That's when all of you came in."

"Another question-"Fred said

"Why did-"

"Ron and Hermione-"

"Smell like-"

"They took a dip in Black Lake-"

"And ran through Fire?" George finished

"I don't know but they those two are awake." Mad-eye said looking at the door and everyone went silent.

_Sitting Room_

Ron and Hermione lay on the two couches pulled close together, their hands dangling off the edge like they had fallen asleep, much like the last time they had slept at Grimmauld Place. Hermione sat up and looked around confused until the events of yesterday came rushing back to her. She jumped up and leaned over Ron.

"Ron!" she whispered shaking his shoulder "Ron! Wake up!"

"Whutzgoinon?" Ron said groggily "Hermione?"

"Get up!" she said "oh god, it must nearly be noon. Everyone is going to be up! Merlin, the book! They're going to know everything! And we're going to have to listen to everything from this last year! Harry's going to be absolutely crushed when he finds out about Sirius! And Dumbledore! And it's from Harry's point of view! We have to hear all about his thoughts-"

"Hermione!" Ron cut in "How are you so sure it's from Harry's point of view?" he asked curiously

"It's called _Harry Potter_ and the Deathly Hallows not Ronald Weasley and the Bloody Horcrux Hunt." Hermione said exasperated

"So we get to listen to Harry's depressing thoughts. This should be fun." Ron said sarcastically. "Er, Hermione?"

"What?"

"About the kisses in the Chamber of bloody Secrets and in the Room of Requirement," Hermione stared at him "are we together now?" he asked looking hopeful, like he thought that she would reject him

"Are you daft Ronald Weasley?" she whispered and stepped in front of him "Does this answer your question?" and then she kissed him. It started out slow but quickly became more heated and more passionate than the kiss in the room of requirement. Her hands became buried in his ginger hair and his settled on her lower back. They slowly separated, gasping for breath.

"That was brilliant." Ron gasped "No harry or being soaked to the skin this time." Hermione let out a breathless laugh.

"We need to change." She said looking at their pajamas they had changed into after taking long showers the previous night. Once they were both changed, Ron and Hermione stared at the door leading into the kitchen.

"Everything's going to change now isn't it?" Hermione said and Ron nodded.

"It is mental seeing everyone who died alive." Ron said and they looked at each other.

"Let's go." Hermione said.

"Yeah. I'm starving."

Everyone was sitting around the table and abruptly stopped talking when the door opened.

"Mooorning" Fred and George drawled out breaking the silence and everyone started laughing.

"Wotcher." Tonks said

"What's for breakfast" Future Hermione asked looking at Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, it's nearly lunch dear." She said "but we have some leftovers. Merlin, you two are so thin!" After future Ron and Hermione finished bacon sandwiches, they all sat looking at the book.

"So," Sirius looked at everyone "who's going to read?"

"I will!" Tonks said brightly. "**In Memoriam**" she read

**Harry was bleeding.**

"What's new?" Ron said at the same time Hermione said

"What happened now?"

"Is he ok?" Molly fretted

**Clutching his right hand in his left and swearing under his breath he shouldered open his bedroom door. There was a crunch of breaking china: He had trodden on a cup of cold tea that had been sitting on the floor outside his bedroom door.**

"Probably Dudley's clever idea of a booby trap." Harry said rolling his eyes

"That's supposed to be clever?" Fred and George asked

"To someone that has the mental capacity of a pig it's a brilliant idea" Harry replied

"**What the–?"**

**He looked around; the landing of number four, Privet Drive, was deserted–**

**Possibly the cup of tea was Dudley's clever idea of a booby trap.**

"We heard you the first time Harry." George said and Harry rolled his eyes.

**Keeping his bleeding hand elevated, Harry scraped the fragments of the cup together with the other hand and threw them into the already crammed bin just visible inside his bedroom door. Then he tramped across to the bathroom to run his finger under the tap.**

**It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic… but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut would have defeated him. **

"The boy who lived… defeated by a cut" Fred said dramatically

**He had never learned to repair wounds, and now he came to think of it– particularly in light of his immediate plans –this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education.**

**Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, **

"When in doubt, ask Hermione." Future Ron said ginning

**he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could, before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.**

"Harry, don't slam doors." Mrs. Weasley scolded to everyone's amusement

**Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago. At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris at the bottom– old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fit.**

**Minutes previously, Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand, and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood. He now proceeded a little more cautiously. Kneeling down beside the trunk again, he groped around in the bottom and, after retrieving an old badge that flickered feebly between ****Support **_**CEDRIC DIGGORY **_**and **_**POTTER STINKS-**_

"why did you keep that?" Hermione asked and harry shrugged. Memories of a graveyard were flashing in his mind.

**-a cracked and worn-out Sneakoscope, and a gold locket**

"Hermione, the locket!" Future Ron gasped

"What about it?" future Hermione asked looking confused. He turned towards his mum

"have you cleaned out the drawing room?" he asked hurriedly

"No, we were going to later" she said looking extremely confused as her son from the future leaned over to Hermione and whispered something in her ear. Future hemiones eyes widened

"Ron, that's brilliant!" she exclaimed

"Always the tone of surprise" he mocked and they both sprinted out of the room. Everyone sat there shocked.

"What the hell was that about?" Ginny said

"Ginerva Weasley, language!" Mrs. Weasley gasped, shocked that her only daughter had just swore, in front of two professors no less. She was about to go into a long lecture about proper language but was interrupted when future Ron and Hermione came in, out of breath, and sat down.

"what were you two doing?" Mr. Weasley asked curiously

"Snogging?" Bill said grinning. Future Ron and Hermione both had a blush on their face and Ron and Hermione's faces were both red and they were pointedly looking at the table. Future Ron looked at Bill

"So how is the French girlfriend" he asked and Bill blushed Weasley red when everyone stared at him.

"Who is she?" Mrs. Weasley asked and Bill muttered something.

"what was that Bill?" George asked

"Yeah, we couldn't hear you." Fred finished both grinning manically

"Fleur Delacour."he said turning even redder as everyone stared at him.

"I believe we can talk about Mr. Weasley's love life later." Dumbledore said

**inside which a note signed R.A.B. had been hidden;**

"Who's RAB?" Ginny asked

"Could be my brother, Regulus Arcturus Black." Sirius said

**he finally recognized the sharp edge that had done the damage.**

**He recognized it at once.** **It was a two-inch-long fragment of the enchanted mirror that**

Tonks froze and stared at the book in shock.

"What's wrong?" Mad-Eye said gruffly. Tonks had no colour left in her face and her hair turned a duller pink. She looked at the future Ron and Hermione and they gave small, grim nods.

"Nymphadora?" Sirius asked and was surprised when she didn't yell at him for calling her by her name but she gave him a sad look with tears in her eyes. Tonks took a shaky breath and continued.

**that his dead godfather, Sirius, had given him.**

There was a shocked silence and both Ron's and Hermione's were staring at Harry

"But Sirius, you can't be dead!" he choked and Sirius looked at him.

"We're going to change this." Sirius said then turned towards future Ron and Hermione "When?" he asked

"The end of fifth year." future Hermione whispered with tears in her eyes. Future Ron gripped her hand and she gave him a faint smile.

**Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest, but nothing more remained of his godfather's last-last gift.**

"Everyone winced at the reminder of Sirius' death

**Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest, but nothing more remained of his godfather's last gift except powdered glass, which clung to the deepest layer of debris like glittering grit.**

**Harry sat up and examined the jagged piece on which he had cut himself, seeing nothing but his own bright green eye reflected back at him.**

_Lily's eyes_ Lupin, Sirius, McGonagall, and Dumbledore thought

**Then he placed the fragment on top of that morning's **_**Daily Prophet, **_**which lay unread on the bed, and attempted to stem the sudden upsurge of bitter memories, the stabs of regret and of longing the broken mirror had occasioned, by attacking the rest of the rubbish in the trunk.**

**It took another hour to empty it completely, throw away the useless items, and sort the remainder in piles according to weather or not he would need them from now on. **

**His school and Quidditch robes cauldron, parchment, quills, and most of his textbooks were piled in a corner, to be left behind.**

"Left behind? What are you doing that for? You're going to Hogwarts for your seventh year!" Mrs. Weasley said

"From the sound of it, I do believe that Mr. Potter has no intention of returning to Hogwarts for his final year." McGonagall said sternly

"Is that true?" Arthur asked his future son and he nodded, his ears turning red.

"And I suppose we're going with him." Hermione said and her future self nodded, sinking lower in her seat as Mrs. Weasley's face turned redder.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE _'NOT GOING BACK TO HOGWARTS?'_ HOW WILL YOU EVER GET A GOOD JOB AT THE MINISTRY IF YOU NEVER TAKE YOUR N.E.W.T.S? NONE OF YOUR BROTHERS WOULD _DARE_ SKIPPING THEIR LAST YEAR! BILL AND CHARLIE WOULD NEVER! EVEN FRED AND GEORGE WOULDN'T EVEN _THINK _ABOUT IT! YOU WILL NEVER GET A GOOD JOB IN THE MINISTRY! HOW WILL YOU EVER SET A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR YOU SISTER? YOU BETTER HAVE A _DAMN_ GOOD REASON RONALD WEASLEY!" she yelled at future Ron, who was staring at her shocked while everyone else was gaping at her with wide eyes.

"Er,"Future Ron said breaking the stunned silence "we did have a bloody good reason, and no offence mum, but that wasn't as bad as when you yelled at me in my time. It was much longer and louder and you swore a bunch more." He cringed at the memory. Future Hermione smiled faintly.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Weasley, but Fred and George _did _drop out of Hogwarts, right after the Easter holidays actually." She finished smirking at the twins.

"Forge,"

"Yes Gred?"

"In the future-"

"We-"

"Are-"

"Awesome!" the twins finished grinning broadly and Tonks quickly started to read before Mrs. Weasley started yelling again.

**He wondered what his aunt and uncle would do with them; burn them in the dead of night probably, as if they were the evidence of some dreadful crime. His muggle clothing, Invisibility Cloak, potion-making kit, certain books, the photograph album Hagrid had once given him, a stack of letters, and his wand were packed into an old rucksack. In a front pocket were the Marauder's Map and the locket with the note signed R.A.B. inside it. The locket was accorded this place of honor not because it was valuable– in all usual sense it was worthless –but because of what it had cost to attain it.**

"What was the cost?" McGonagall asked alarmed

"Someone's life" Future Hermione said quietly

**This left a sizeable stack of newspapers sitting on his desk beside his snowy owl, Hedwig: one for each of the days Harry had spent at Privet Drive this summer.**

**He got up off the floor, stretched, and moved across to his desk. Hedwig made no movement as he began to flick through the newspapers, throwing them onto the rubbish pile one by one. The owl was asleep, or else faking; she was angry with Harry about the limited amount of time she was allowed out of her cage at the moment .As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular issue he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.**

Everyone's face's darkened as they thought of the fate of the Muggle Studies teacher.

**At last he found it. Turning to page ten, he sank into his desk chair and reread the article he had been looking for.**

Tonks gasped and looked at the book with wide eyes.

"Is the future really this bad?" she asked ignoring everyone but the future duo's questioning stares.

"It gets worse." Future Hermione said sharing a dark look with future Ron.

**Albus Dumbledore Remembered,**

"_What!"_ everyone gasped.

"One must die sometime, and frankly I am quite old." Dumbledore said

**by Elphias Dodge.**

**I met Dumbledore at the age of eleven, on our first day at Hogwarts. Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly-**

**"**Does anyone object to skipping this part?" asked Tonks. "it's just a bunch of rubbish, no offence Dumbles, about the great Albus Dumbledore's life."

"I do not mind Nymphadora." He replied

"Call me Tonks, I hate Nymphadora." She grumbled

**Harry finished reading but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar, kindly smile, but as he peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.**

**He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading the obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all. Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old. The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione or a friendly Blast-Ended Skrewt.**

"that is hard to imagine." Harry said with a slight grin.

"Yeah. Imagine a stupid Hermione, that's bloody impossible!" Ron said laughing and future Hermione punched future Ron in the arm.

"Bloody hell Hermione! I didn't even say it!" he said as everyone started to roar with laughter. The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes was on full blast and even McGonagall couldn't hold back a smile at two of her favorite student.

"But you would have. And it was you, in a way." She pointed out with a small smirk on her face as he sighed in defeat.

**He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all, it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements.****No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry's past, Harry's future, Harry's plans… and it seemed to Harry know, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain-**

"Can my future get any worse than it is now?" Harry asked with just a 'small' dash of sarcasm

"Well…" Future Hermione trailed off

"Yes" future Ron finished.

"May I inquire how, Mr. Weasley?" Dumbledore asked leaning in. Fred and George opened their mouths to 'answer' but were silenced by a death glare from their mum. The future duo exchanged a dark glance

"The book will most likely explain." Future Hermione said in a quiet voice.

**that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, even though the only personal question he had ever asked his headmaster was also the only one he suspected that Dumbledore had not answered honestly:**

"_**What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**_

"_**I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**_

"What?" was the question echoing around the room. Everyone except for Harry and Dumbledore looked confused

"It's nothing." Harry said quickly

**After several minutes' thought, Harry tore the obituary out of the **_**Prophet**_**, folded it carefully, and tucked it inside the first volume of **_**Practical Defensive Magic and Its Uses Against the Dark Arts. **_**Then he threw the rest of the newspaper onto the rubbish pile and turned to face the room. It was much tidier. The only things left out of place were today's **_**Daily Prophet, **_**still lying on the bed, and on top of it, the piece of broken mirror.**

**Harry moved across the room, slid the mirror fragment off today's **_**Prophet, **_**and unfolded the newspaper. He had merely glanced at the headline when he had taken the rolled-up paper from the delivery owl early that morning and thrown in aside, after noting that it said nothing about Voldemort. Harry was sure that the Ministry was only leaning on the**_**Prophet**_**to suppress news about Voldemort.**

**It was only now, therefore, that he saw what he had missed.**

**Across the bottom half of the front page a smaller headline was set over a picture of Dumbledore striding along looking harried:**

**DUMBLEDORE – THE TRUTH AT LAST?**

"Oh no." Future Hermione said as future Ron groaned "not that article."

"**I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter**-**Dumbledore relationship. It's been called****Unhealthy, even sinister. Again your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy's best interest – well, we'll see. It's certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."**

**I ask whether Skeeter**

"Skeeter?" Hermione inquired furiously "Rita Skeeter! That daft dung beetle!" she yelled and everyone gaped at her.

"What?" she asked as both Ron's and Harry were trying their hardest not to laugh "she really is a dung beetle!" Tonks continued read looking at Hermione weirdly

**is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned.**

**"Oh, yes, we've developed a close bond," says Skeeter. "Poor Potter has few real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moment of his life – the Triwizard Tournament. I am probably one of the only people alive who can say that they know the real Harry Potter."**

"That's a load of bull-"

"RONALD!" Mrs. Weasley screamed

**Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?**

**"Well, I don't want to say too much – it's all in the book – but eyewitnesses inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. Is everything as it seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide – once they've read my book."**

**Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued to stare blankly at the page. Revulsion and fury rose up in him like vomit; he balled up the newspaper and threw it, with all his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his overflowing bin.**

**He began to stride blindly around the room, opening empty drawers and picking up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing, as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head:**_**An entire chapter to the whole Potter – Dumbledore relationship…It's been called unhealthy, even sinister…he dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth…I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for…**_

_**"**_**Lies," Harry bellowed, and though the window he saw the next-door neighbor, who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously.**

"What's a yawn mowder?" Mr. Weasley asked as everyone laughed

"Harry-"

"Harry-"

"Harry-"

"You really-"

"Should watch-"

"Your temper."

**Harry sat down on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him…**

**A flash of the brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing: There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him.**

**He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.**

"Well that was a delightful chapter." Sirius said sarcastically.

"Who's going to read next?" Tonks asked holding out the book

"I will" Lupin said and turned to the next page.

"**The Dursleys Departing**" He read

**A/N: Review Please!**


	4. The Dursleys Departing

**Hello! I'm sorry this took so long! I've had sooo much freakin homework this past week, it's not even funny. The next chapter might be up in 1 or 2 weeks. Sorry if the end of this chapter is kinda messy. So, here's the next chapter :p**

**A/N: I do not own anything from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or anything from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.**

The Dursleys Departing

"Wait," Dumbledore said, now the attention of everyone's stares. "Yesterday Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger had mentioned not hiring Dolores Umbridge and I am curious as to why we shouldn't hire her."

Future Ron and Hermione opened their mouths to answer but all of the sudden the lights in the room had dimmed and a thick square screen like mist hung at the end of the table. The Order and Future Ron and Hermione had drawn their wands and pointed them at it. An image of the Great Hall came into view and the image started to play like a film. Future Ron and Hermione gasped in shock as it was what had happened during the welcoming feast in _fifth _year!

**"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.**

"It is odd hearing yourself speaking when you haven't said those words yet." Dumbledore mused.

**"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."**

"Let me take a guess," Sirius said "She's the toad in a pink dress."

Future Ron and Hermione nodded grimly and nearly everyone groaned.

**There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause. Dumbledore continued, Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the-"**

"Quidditch field." Fred and George said and a few people snorted but most were staring at Umbridge, who had stood up.

**Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "Hem, **_**hem**_**," and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.**

"What!" Everyone gasped in shock. Nobody has _ever _interrupted Dumbledore's welcoming speech before.

**Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk.**

"Albus, you surely aren't going to let her talk!" McGonagall said, her eyes slightly widened.

"It seems so Minerva." He simply looked amused at this whole thing.

**Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout's eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair and Professor McGonagall's mouth was thin.**

"Oooohhhhhh," Sirius said smirking "Minnie looks mad!" McGonagall glared at him.

**"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."**

**Her voice was high-pitched, breathy and little-girlish.**

"She has said eight words and I already hate her." Ron said

**She gave another little throat-clearing cough ("hem, hem") and continued.**

**"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me!"**

"Why do I doubt that any of their faces will look somewhat happy?" said Remus, shaking his head. _That vile woman_ he thought.

"It's because we were in disbelief that a fat toad could talk." Future Ron said with a small grin on his face.

**"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"**

"She's talking to us like we're three!" Harry and Ginny said in disbelief then turned Weasley red, lucky for them it was dark. Future Hermione grinned knowingly at them

"_That's_ supposed to be our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?" Hermione asked in shock.

**Umbridge cleared her throat again ("hem, hem"), but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them.**

"Which means it's time to take a nap." Sirius, Lupin, and the Twins said.

"Remus!" Mrs. Weasley reproached, "I thought you were the good one! You were a prefect!"

"Well I was a Marauder." Lupin said sheepishly.

"Besides mum," Future Ron said with a sideways glance at Future Hermione, "Not all prefects follow the rules."

Mrs. Weasley stared at Ron. _What did her youngest son mean by that?_

**"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."**

Future Ron and Hermione snorted at that while everyone was staring at her image, shocked into silence.

**Professor Umbridge paused here and made a little bow to her fellow staff members, none of whom bowed back to her. Professor McGonagall's dark eyebrows had contracted so that she looked positively hawklike,**

"Did she honestly expect you to bow back?" Bill asked

**and she exchanged a significant glance with Professor Sprout as Umbridge gave another little "**_**hem, hem"**_** and went on with her speech.**

"Does she do that 'giggle' all year?" Ginny asked infuriated.

**"Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation…"**

**The quiet that always filled the Hall when Dumbledore was speaking was breaking up as students put their heads together, whispering and giggling.**

**Umbridge did not seem to notice the restlessness of her audience. **

**"…because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognised as errors of judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."**

**She sat down.**

The mist screen vanished into midair and the lights came back on.

"Bloody hell" Both Ron's said effectively breaking the tension that had gathered throughout Umbridge's speech.

"What just happened?" Tonks asked looking puzzled.

"Remember in the note?" Hermione said and then rolled her eyes when nobody remembered "It said 'if you want to know something that isn't in the book but happened before when future Ron and Hermione come from, just ask'."

"How can you remember that?" Ron asked

"I listen Ronald!" she huffed and rolled her eyes once again, then paused for a second, "Does that really happen in our future, well, your past?"

"Yeah, in fifth year. Made that year hell that-"

"RONALD!"

"-did." Future Ron said

"Well, shall we get on with the book?" Dumbledore asked looking curiously at the book. _The Deathly Hallows_ he thought, _What did they have to do with young Harry?_

"**The Dursleys Departing" **Lupin read, interrupting Dumbledore's thoughts

**The sound of the front door slamming echoed up the stairs and a voice roared, "Oh! You!"**

**Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt when his uncle was calling,**

Everyone gave Harry pitying looks, which he ignored.

**nevertheless, he did not immediately respond. He was still at the narrow fragment in which, for a split second, he had thought he saw Dumbledore's eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, "BOY!" **

"Merlin! He's not a dog!" Mrs. Weasley hissed.

"What do you have against dogs? It's those bloody cats from hell you have to watch out for!" Sirius exclaimed looking like Mrs. Weasley had personally offended him. McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"Would you like to rephrase that Mr. Black?" She asked in a steel like voice. Everyone started to laugh at Sirius' deer-in-a-headlight expression.

"I-I mean, w-well what I meant was- Cats are b-brilliant! They b-b-beat dogs a-any day! " Sirius sputtered with wide eyes as Gred and Forge fell out of their chairs, clutching stiches in their sides.

**that Harry got slowly out of bed and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to the rucksack filled with things he would be taking with him**.

**You took you time!" roared Vernon Dursley when Harry appeared at the top of the stairs, "Get down here. I want a word!"**

**Harry strolled downstairs, his hands deep in his pants pockets. When he searched the living room he found all three Dursleys. They were dressed for packing; Uncle Vernon in an old ripped-up jacket and Dudley, Harry's, large, blond, muscular cousin, in his leather jacket.**

"Large?" Fred gasped dramatically

"He's the size of a whale!" George said in a high, girlish tone that reminded Future Ron and Hermione strongly of Umbridge.

"**Yes?" asked Harry.**

"**Sit down!" said Uncle Vernon. Harry raised his eyebrows. "Please!"**

"I think that that is the first time Uncle Vernon has ever said please." Harry said shocked.

"It's a bloody miracle!" Tonks gasped

**added Uncle Vernon, wincing slightly as though the word was sharp in his throat.**

**Harry sat. He though he knew what was coming. His uncle began to pace up and down, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, following his movement with anxious expressions. Finally, his large purple face crumpled with concentration. Uncle Vernon stopped in front of Harry and spoke.**

**"I've changed my mind," he said.**

"What a surprise." said Harry.

**"What a surprise," said Harry.**

"That's just getting creepy!" Harry said and everyone nodded in agreement.

"I think it was weirder when Hermione answered herself." Fred stated

"Nooooo, it was when both of our Ronnies said the same thing at the same time." George argued in a mock thinking voice. Both started stroking invisible beards as everyone stared at them.

**"Don't you take that tone—" began Aunt Petunia in a shrill voice, but Vernon Dursley waved her down**

**"It's all a lot of claptrap," said Uncle Vernon, glaring at Harry with piggy little eyes. "I've decided I don't believe a word of it. We're staying put, we're not going anywhere."**

**Harry looked up at his uncle and felt a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking and repacking the car with every change of heart.**

"That sounds just like him, the great whale." Harry said and everyone started to laugh, except for Mrs. Weasley.

"Harry," she chided "Don't talk about your uncle like that, it's rude."

"Mum," Ron said "It may be rude but it's true. Harry's uncle really does look like a fat, ugly whale!"

"Ickle Ronniekins is funny!" Fred and George gasped dramatically as Ron's ears turned red.

**Harry's favorite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware the Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it been repacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with a yelp of pain and much swearing.**

Everyone was roaring with laughter.

"I wish I could have seen that!" Harry said through his laughter.

"Mate, I hate to break it to you, but you did!" Ron said causing everyone to laugh harder as a faint blush spread across Harry's face.

"**According to you," Vernon Dursley said, now resuming his pacing up and down the living room, "we – Petunia, Dudley, and I – are in danger. From – from –"**

"**Some of 'my lot' right?" said Harry**

"What do you mean by 'my lot'?" Bill asked the question that was burning in everyone's minds.

"He means Witches and Wizards." Harry said bitterly. After nearly four summers of the Dursleys criticizing the Wizarding World, he still hasn't gotten used to it.

**"Well I don't believe it," repeated Uncle Vernon, coming to a halt in front of Harry again. "I was awake half the night thinking it all over, and I believe it's a plot to get the house."**

"The house? What house is he talking about?" Harry asked looking confused.

**"The house?" repeated Harry. "What house?"**

"Ugh!" Harry exclaimed as everyone laughed

"Guess you don't change in two years mate!" Ron said

**"This house!" shrieked Uncle Vernon, the vein his forehead starting to pulse. "Our house! House prices are skyrocketing around here! You want us out of the way and then you're going to do a bit of hocus pocus and before we know it the deeds will be in your name and –"**

"How stupid is that man!" Mrs. Weasley said angrily.

**"Are you out of your mind?" demanded Harry. "A plot to get this house? Are you actually as stupid as you look?"**

**"Don't you dare -!" squealed Aunt Petunia, but again Vernon waved her down. Slights on his personal appearance were it seemed as nothing to the danger he had spotted.**

**"Just in case you've forgotten," said Harry, "I've already got a house my godfather left me one. So why would I want this one? All the happy memories?"**

"You left me Grimmauld Place?" Harry asked surprised

"Of course!" Sirius said "Who else would I leave it to?"

"Me?" Tonks asked grinning

"No, you've knocked over the umbrella stand too many times." Sirius smirked and Tonks teasingly huffed and crossed her arms as her hair turned bright purple and then back to bubblegum pink.

**There was silence. Harry thought he had rather impressed his uncle with this argument.**

**"You claim," said Uncle Vernon, starting to pace yet again, "that this Lord Thing –"**

"Hey Gred,"

"Yes, Forge?"

"Let's call him Lord Thing from now on!"

"Boys! Do you want to be murdered in your sleep?" Mrs. Weasley shouted and Fred and George paled.

**"—Voldemort," said Harry impatiently, "and we've been through this about a hundred times already. This isn't a claim, it's fact. Dumbledore told you last year, and Kingsley and Mr. Weasley –"**

**Vernon Dursley hunched his shoulders angrily, and Harry guessed that his uncle was attempting to ward off recollections of the unannounced visit, a few days into Harry's summer holidays, of two fully grown wizards. The arrival on the doorstep of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley had come as a most unpleasant shock to the Dursleys. Harry had to admit, however that as Mr. Weasley had once demolished half of the living room, his reappearance could not have been expected to delight Uncle Vernon.**

"What did it mean by _demolished half of the living room?_" Mrs. Weasley said in a deadly whisper. Mr. Weasley turned red and muttered something about an eckeltric fireplace as everyone laughed at his predicament.

**"—Kingsley and Mr. Weasley explained it all as well," Harry pressed on remorselessly, "Once I'm seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break, and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I'd come and try to rescue you."**

"Would you?" Ginny asked and Harry looked thoughtful and a little bit conflicted.

"Probably." Harry said

**Uncle Vernon's and Harry's eyes met. Harry was sure that in that instant they were both wondering the same thing. Then Uncle Vernon walked on and Harry resumed, "You've got to go into hiding and the Order wants to help. You're being offered serious protection, the best there is."**

**Uncle Vernon said nothing but continued to pace up and down. Outside the sun hung low over the privet hedges. The next door neighbor's lawn mower stalled again.**

**"I thought there was a Ministry of Magic?" asked Vernon Dursley abruptly.**

**"There is," said Harry, surprised.**

**"Well, then, why can't they protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harboring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!"**

Harry laughed.

**Harry laughed;**

"That is going to happen a lot, isn't it?" Harry sighed

"Most likely, considering it is technically yourself but in two years." Hermione informed

"What the hell did you just say?" Ron said looking very confused.

"Honestly." Hermione grumbled

**he could not help himself. It was so very typical of his uncle to put his hopes in the establishment, even within this world that he despised and mistrusted.**

**"You heard what Mr. Weasley and Kingsley said," Harry replied.**

**"We think the Ministry has been infiltrated."**

**Uncle Vernon strode back to the fireplace and back breathing so strongly that his great black mustache rippled his face still purple with concentration.**

**"All right," he said. Stopping in front of Harry get again. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument we accept this protection. I still don't see why we can't have that Kingsley bloke."**

**Harry managed not to roll his eyes, but with difficulty. This question had also been addressed half a dozen times.**

**"As I've told you," he said through gritted teeth, "Kingsley is protecting the Mug – I mean, your Prime Minister."**

**"Exactly – he's the best!" said Uncle Vernon,** **pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital. This, and the fact that Kingsley had mastered the knack of dressing like a Muggle, not to mention a certain reassuring something in his slow, deep voice, had caused the Dursleys to take to Kingsley in a way that they had certainly not done with any other wizard, although it was true that they had never seen him with earring in.**

"We should get Kingsley to wear his earing at the Dursleys." Tonks snickered

**"Well, he's taken," said Harry. "But Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle are more than up to the job –"**

**"If we'd even seen CVs…" began Uncle Vernon, but Harry lost patience. Getting to his feet, he advanced on his uncle, not pointing at the TV set himself.**

**"These accidents aren't accidents – the crashed and explosions and derailments and whatever else has happened since we last watched the news. People are disappearing and dying and he's behind it – Voldemort. I've told you this over and over again, he kills Muggles for fun. Even the fogs – they're caused by dementors, and if you can't remember what they are, ask your son!"**

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Mad-Eye roared making everyone jump. Future Ron and Hermione's hands shot to their pockets that contained their wands before they realized that it was only Mood and they relaxed.

**Dudley's hands jerked upward to tower his mouth. With his parents' and Harry's eyes upon him, he slowly lowered them again and asked, "There are… more of them?"**

"How stupid is that boy to think that there would only be two dementors in the world!" McGonagall said incredulously and everyone stared at her. _Did McGonagall just call somebody stupid?_

**"More?" laughed Harry. "More than the two that attacked us, you mean? Of course there are hundreds, maybe thousands by this time, seeing as they feed off fear and despair—"**

**"All right, all right," blustered Vernon Dursley. "You've made your point –"**

**"I hope so," said Harry, "because once I'm seventeen, all of them – Death Eaters, Dementors, maybe even Inferi –**

Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny opened their mouths to ask what exactly were inferi but Lupin cut them off.

"It explains in the book." He said quickly

**which means dead bodies enchanted by a Dark wizard**

"How did you learn that?" Mrs. Weasley asked "Please tell me you haven't fought inferi!" She exclained to Future Ron and Hermione as everyone else paled at that thought.

"No," Future Hermione said "_We _haven't fought inferi. Snape told us about them in sixth year." Everyone seemed satisfied with that answer. Future Hermione shared a glance with Future Ron, she had told the truth, _they _hadn't fought inferi, Harry did.

– **will be able to find you and will certainly attack you. And if you remember the last time you tried to outrun wizards, I think you'll agree you need help."**

**There was a brief silence in which the distant echo of Hagrid smashing down a wooden front door seemed to reverberate through the intervening years.**

"Why did Hagrid break down your door?" Hermione asked sounding exasperated and Harry laughed.

"I believe Hagrid knocked down the door, gave Dudley a pigs tail, and told me I was a wizard." Harry said grinning as everyone, except McGonagall, sniggerd.

"Hagrid," McGonagall sighed dotingly.

**Aunt Petunia was looking at Uncle Vernon; Dudley was staring at Harry. Finally Uncle Vernon blurted out, "But what about my work? What about Dudley's school? I don't suppose those things matter to a bunch of layabout wizards –"**

**"Don't you understand?" shouted Harry. "They will torture and kill you like they did my parents!"**

There was a heavy silence in the room for the death of Lily and James Potter. Sirius was furious with himself for going after Peter and not going to Dumbledore first thing after he found Lily and Prongs.

Remus was thinking about how he could have possibly thought that Sirius would betray two of his best friends.

**"Dad," said Dudley in a loud voice, "Dad – I'm going with these Order people."**

**"Dudley," said Harry, "for the first time in your life, you're talking sense."**

**He knew the battle was won. If Dudley was frightened enough to accept the Order's help, his parents would accompany him. There could be no question of being separated from their Duddykins. Harry glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece.**

Everyone was howling laughter.

"Who calls their kid Duddykins?" Hermione laughed

"I almost feel sorry for that bloke." Ron gasped

"We don't!" Sniggered Fred and George

"I said almost." Ron said still smirking slightly

**"They'll be here in about five minutes, he said, and when none of the Dursleys replied, he left the room. The prospect of parting—probably forever – from his aunt, uncle, and cousin was one that he was able to contemplate quite cheerfully but there was nevertheless a certain awkwardness in the air. What did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years' solid dislike?**

"Nothing. You say nothing." Sirius told Harry

"And what did you say to your mother when you left?" Lupin asked

"I did say nothing but, I yelled words that I can't repeat in front of such young ears." Sirius said smirking widely.

"We don't have young ears!" Fred, George, Ginny and Ron exclaimed.

"Yeah, George has one ear." Future Ron whispered to Future Hermione. Nobody heard what he said except for Lupin, because of his werewolf hearing, whose eyes widened.

**Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack then poked a couple of owl nuts through the bats of Hedwig's cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom where she ignored them.**

**"We're leaving soon, really soon," Harry told her. "And then you'll be able to fly again."**

**The doorbell rang. Harry hesitated, then headed back out of his room and downstairs. It was too much to expect Hestia and Dedalus to cope with the Dursleys on their own.**

**"Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited voice, the moment Harry had opened the door; a small man in a mauve top hat that was sweeping him a deep bow. "An honor as ever!"**

"Oh, Dedalus." McGonagall said shaking her head slightly._ Diggle was a bit over excited over everything, like those shooting stars._

**"Thanks, Dedalus," said Harry, bestowing a small and embarrassed smile upon the dark haired Hestia. "It's really good of you to do this… They're through here, my aunt and uncle and cousin…"**

**"Good day to you, Harry Potter's relatives!" said Dedalus happily striding into the living room.**

"The Dursleys won't like that." Harry said grinning slightly

**The Dursleys did not look at all happy to be addressed thus; Harry half expected another change of mind.**

**Dudley shrank neared to his mother at the sight of the witch and wizard.**

**"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry has told you, is a simple one," said Dedalus, pulling an immense pocket watch out of his waistcoat and examining it. "We shall be leaving before Harry does. Due to the danger of using magic in your house –Harry being still underage it could provide the Ministry with an excuse to arrest him –**

"Constant-" Mad-Eye started

"Vigilance!" Tonks finished in an uncanny impression of Moody and everyone laughed.

**we shall be driving, say, ten miles or so before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?" He asked Uncle Vernon politely.**

**"Know how to –? Of course I ruddy well know how to drive!" spluttered Uncle Vernon.**

**"Very clever of you, sir, very clever. I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs," said Dedalus. He was clearly under the impression that he was flattering Vernon Dursley, who was visibly losing confidence in the plan with every word Dedalus spoke.**

**"Can't even drive," he muttered under his breath, his mustache rippling indignantly, but fortunately neither Dedalus nor Hestia seemed to hear him.**

"They would have been so offended." Bill said

**"You, Harry," Dedalus continued, "will wait here for your guard. There has been a little change in the arrangements –"**

"**What d'you mean?" said Harry at once. "I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side Along-Apparition?"**

**"Can't do it," said Hestia tersely, "Mad-Eye will explain."**

**The Dursleys, who had listened to all of this with looks of utter incomprehension on their faces, jumped as a loud voice screeched, "Hurry up!" Harry looked all around the room before realizing the voice had issued from Dedalus's pocket watch.**

**"Quite right, were operating to a very tight schedule," said Dedalus nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his waist coat. "We are attempting to time your departure from the house with your family's Disapparition, Harry thus the charm breaks the moment you all head for safety." He turned to the Dursleys, "Well, are we all packed and ready to go?"**

**None of them answered him. Uncle Vernon was still staring appalled at the bulge in Dedalus's waistcoat pocket.**

**"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia. She clearly felt that it would be tactless for them to remain the room while Harry and the Dursleys exchanged loving, possibly tearful farewells.**

**"There's no need," Harry muttered, but Uncle Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly,**

**"Well, this is good-bye then boy."**

**He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry's hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome.**

**"Ready, Duddy?" asked Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at Harry altogether.**

**Dudley did not answer but stood there with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry a little of the giant, Grawp.**

"WHEN DID YOU MEET A GIANT?" Mrs. Weasley screeched

"We haven't met a giant!" Hermione said shocked

"Yet." Ron pointed out and everyone looked at Future Ron and Hermione, who turned red as a tomato and launched into an explanation.

"Well it was fifth year-"Future Hermione started

"And Hagrid introduced us-" Future Ron continued

"To Grawp-"

"His half-brother-"

"Who's a giant." Future Hermione finished and everyone was looking gobsmacked. After a long, shocked silence where the Future Duo shifted uncomfortably.

**"Come along, then," said Uncle Vernon.**

**He had already reached the living room door when Dudley mumbled, "I don't understand."**

**"You're leaving, so you have to walk out of the room and into the car."**

**"What don't you understand, popkin?" asked Petunia looking up at her son.**

"_Popkin?"_ Everyone snorted.

**Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at Harry.**

**"Why isn't he coming with us?"**

"What?" Harry choked out looking incredulous, "Is Dudley joking?"

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia froze when they stood staring at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become a ballerina.**

Everyone turned a delightful shade of green.

"_Thank you _for that brilliant explanation Harry." Tonks said sarcastically.

"Mate, you really need to watch your thoughts." Future Ron said to Harry.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time a book is written from my point of view." Harry said

**"What?" said Uncle Vernon loudly.**

**"Why isn't he coming too?" asked Dudley.**

**"Well, he—doesn't want to," said Uncle Vernon, turning to glare at Harry and adding, "You don't want to, do you?"**

"No." Harry said

**"Not in the slightest," said Harry.**

"Don't say it!" Harry groaned to Fred and George

**"There you are," Uncle Vernon told Dudley. "Now come on we're off."**

**He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open, but Dudley did not move and after a few faltering steps Aunt Petunia stopped too.**

**"What now?" barked Uncle Vernon, reappearing in the doorway.**

**It seemed that Dudley was struggling with concepts too difficult to put into words. After several moments of apparently painful internal struggle he said, "But where's he going to go?"**

Everyone sat there gawking at the book.

**Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked at each other. It was clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia Jones broke the silence.**

**"But… surely you know where your nephew is going?" she asked looking bewildered.**

**"Certainly we know," said Vernon Dursley. "He's off with some of your lot, isn't he? Right, Dudley, let's get in the car, you heard the man, we're in a hurry."**

**Again, Vernon Dursley marched as far as the front door, but Dudley did not follow.**

**"Off with some of our lot?"**

**Hestia looked outraged. Harry had met this attitude before witches and wizards seemed stunned that his closest living relatives took so little interest in the famous Harry Potter.**

**"It's fine," Harry assured her. "It doesn't matter, honestly."**

**"Doesn't matter?" repeated Hestia, her voice rising considerably.**

**"Don't these people realize what you've been through? What danger you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti Voldemort movement?"**

**"Er –no, they don't," said Harry. "They think I'm a waste of space, actually but I'm used to –"**

**"I don't think you're a waste of space"**

"Who said that!" Sirius exclaimed **(A/N AVPS moment!)**

**If Harry had not seen Dudley's lips move, he might not have believed it.**

"_Dudley said that?" _Harry gaped

"I don't bloody believe it!" Ron and Sirius said, wide-eyed

**As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken; for one thing, Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself**_**.**_

**"Well... er… thanks, Dudley."**

**Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling, "You saved my life,"**

**"Not really," said Harry. "It was your soul the dementor would have taken…"**

**He looked curiously at his cousin. They had had virtually no contact during this summer or last, as Harry had come back to Privet Drive so briefly and kept to his room so much. It now dawned on Harry, however, that the cup of cold tea on which he had trodden that morning might not have been a booby trap at all. Although rather touched he was nevertheless quite relieved that Dudley appeared to have exhausted his ability to express his feelings. After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet-faced silence.**

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward and embraced Dudley rather than Harry.**

"That b-"

"Hermione!" Mrs. Weasley said, thinking that Hermione was spending too much time with Ron to curse.

**"S-so sweet, Dudders…" she sobbed into his massive chest. "S-such a lovely b-boy… s-saying thank you…"**

"But he didn't say thank you!" Tonks and Mrs. Weasley exclaimed

**"But he hasn't said thank you at all!" said Hestia indignantly. "He only said he didn't think Harry was a waste of space!"**

**"Yea but coming from Dudley that's like 'I love you,'" said Harry, torn between annoyance and a desire to laugh as Aunt Petunia continued to clutch at Dudley as if he had just saved Harry from a burning building.**

**"Are we going or not?" roared Uncle Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. "I thought we were on a tight schedule!"**

**"Yes –yes, we are," said Dedalus Diggle, who had been watching these exchanged with an air of bemusement and now seemed to pull himself together. "We really must be off. Harry –"**

**He tripped forward and wrung Harry's hand with both of his own.**

**"—good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders."**

"So no pressure Harry." Fred, George, and Ron said.

"Because that's _exactly _what you want to hear." Ginny declared sarcastically

**"Oh," said Harry, "right. Thanks."**

**"Farwell, Harry," said Hestia also clasping his hand. "Our thoughts go with you."**

**"I hope everything's okay," said Harry with a glance toward Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**"Oh I'm sure we shall end up the best of chums," said Diggle slightly,**

Everyone snorted.

**waving his hat as he left the room. Hestia followed him.**

**Dudley gently released himself from his mother's clutches and walked toward Harry who had to repress an urge to threaten him with magic.**

**Then Dudley held out his large, pink hand.**

**"Blimey, Dudley," said Harry over Aunt Petunia's renewed sobs, "did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"**

**"Dunno," muttered Dudley, "See you, Harry."**

**"Yea …" said Harry, raking Dudley's hand and shaking it. "Maybe. Take care, Big D."**

"Big D?" Future Hermione asked, arching an eyebrow

**Dudley nearly smiled. They lumbered from the room. Harry heard his heavy footfalls on the graveled drive, and then a car door slammed.**

**Aunt Petunia whose face had been buried in her handkerchief looked around at the sound. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with Harry. Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, "Well – good-bye" and marched towards the door without looking at him.**

**"Good-bye" said Harry.**

**She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him; She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little of her head, she hustled out of the room after he husband and son.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Lupin said setting the book down.

"I'll read the next chapter." Mr. Weasley said.

**A/N: Please review with your thoughts about this chapter!**


	5. AN

**A/N: Sorry! This is not a new chapter. I've been super busy with school work and my life is crazy. I've been trying to work on a new chapter but haven't really found any inspiration or had any ideas. I've been trying to think of a new character to add into my story so I put up a poll on my profile. PLEASE ANSWER IT! I have some great ideas for each character but I have no idea when I'm going to incorporate them into this story and ANSWERING MY POLL WILL HELP!**

**Thanks!**

**WizardDragon**


	6. The Seven Potters

**A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long! I've been super busy with schoolwork and a bunch of other crap. My poll is still up so PLEASE vote! If you voted other, you need to review or PM me who you want! I have good ideas for all my options and I will have the top one or two of them in my story. Right now it's Future Neville and Percy so VOTE! Anyways, here's the next chapter… hope you like it!**

**A/N: I do not own Harry Potter :(**

**The Seven Potters**

"The Seven Potters" Mr. Weasley read.

"Seven?" Sirius asked "There's only one Potter alive. How's that possible?" He looked at Future Ron and Hermione, who shook their heads slightly.

**Harry ran back upstairs to his bedroom, arriving at the window just in time to see the Dursleys' car swinging out of the drive and off up the road. Dedalus's top hat was visible between Aunt Petunia and Dudley in the backseat.**

"They won't be happy about that" Harry said grinning slightly.

**The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned scarlet for a moment in the now setting sun, and then it was gone.**

**Harry picked up Hedwig's cage, his Firebolt, and his rucksack, gave his unnaturally tidy bedroom one last sweeping look, and then made his ungainly way back downstairs to the hall, where he deposited cage, broomstick, and bag near the foot of the stairs. The light was fading rapidly, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat.**

There were some raised eyebrows at that.

**Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. It gave him an odd, empty feeling remembering those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.**

**"Don't you want to take a last look at the place?" he asked Hedwig, who was still sulking with her head under her wing.**

"**We'll never be here again. Don't you want to remember all the good times? I mean, look at this doormat. What memories …**

"The doormat?" Ron asked incredulously and Harry looked thoroughly confused.

"Harry-"

"Our dear friend-"

"We're afraid to tell you-"

"That you've gone a bit mad in the future." The twins finished.

**Dudley throw up on it after I saved him from the dementors … Turns out he was grateful after all, can you believe it? …**

"_That's_ a good time?" Ginny asked making a face.

**And last summer, Dumbledore walked through that front door …"**

"What was Dumbledore doing at your house?" Hermione wondered aloud.

"I think I have an idea Ms. Granger." Dumbledore said making everyone jump. They had nearly forgotten that the old wizard was here. Everone sitting around the table looked at him to explain what his idea was but he just smiled merrily and popped a sherbet lemon in his mouth.

**Harry lost the thread of his thoughts for a moment and Hedwig did nothing to help him retrieve it, but continued to sit with her head under her wing. Harry turned his back on the front door.**

"**And under here, Hedwig" – Harry pulled open a door under the stairs**

_Oh no_ Harry thought and shrunk down in his chair as Mr. Weasley gaped at the book, turning Weasley red.

"What is it Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked worriedly. As an explanation, he continued to read.

– **"is where I used to sleep!**

"WHAT!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Those sons of bitches!" Sirius yelled furious.

"I'm going to kill them!" Remus growled, looking much like the wolf he was once a month.

"I told you the Dursley's were vile people, Albus!" McGonagall hissed

"Oh Harry..." Hermione sighed with tears in her eyes.

"Mate, why didn't you say anything?" Ron asked as his future counterpart and Future Hermione looked shell shocked and Fred, George, and Ginny huddled around a sheet of parchment, scribbling with ferocity.

"Because it was a long time ago and it doesn't matter!" Harry said in a monotone voice.

"Yes it does! That's bloody abuse! I know it's hard for you to see mate, but people do care about you!" Ron said staring at his friend of nearly five years, who shrugged. Both pairs of Ron's and Hermione's shared exasperated glances.

"Can we just keep reading?" Harry said with a tone that left no room for argument and Mr. Weasley complied.

**You never knew me then – Blimey, it's small, I'd forgotten …"**

**Harry looked around at the stacked shoes and umbrellas remembering how he used to wake every morning looking up at the underside of the staircase, which was more often than not adorned with a spider or two.**

Both Ron's shuddered.

**Those had been the days before he had known anything about his true identity; before he had found out how his parents had died or why such strange things often happened around him. But Harry could still remember the dreams that had dogged him, even in those days:**

**confused dreams involving flashes of green light and once – Uncle Vernon had nearly crashed the car when Harry had recounted it – a flying motorbike …**

"That wasn't a dream." Future Ron said.

"I know that know!" Harry said

"That's my bike!" Sirius grinned "I can't believe you remembered that! I wonder if Hagrid

still has it… I'll ask him when he gets back"

"Gets back from where?" Hermione inquired

"From partying with the giants." Future Ron muttered to Future Hermione as Mrs. Weasley snapped "Nothing!". Lupin looked at them in shock, being the only one who heard the exchange.

"How did you two find out?" He asked, turning everyone's attention onto the duo.

"They're in the Golden Trio-"

"They find out everything."

"The Golden _what?_" Ron asked

"It's what everyone calls you three at school." Ginny explained then turned to the duo "What is Hagrid doing?" she asked eagerly.

"Nothing!" Mrs. Weasley hissed again, ending the conversation.

**There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of his head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words, **

"Harry! Don't swear!" Mrs. Weasley chided. Ron snickered and his mum rounded on him.

"Don't get me started on you Ronald!" Ron shut up.

**he staggered back into the kitchen, clutching his head and staring out of the window into the back garden.**

**The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted. Dominating the scene was Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached.**

**All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses.**

"How many people are there?" Lupin asked.

"Lots." Said Tonks, grinning.

**Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him, Ron clapped him on the back, and Hagrid said, "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"**

"**Definitely," said Harry, beaming around at them all. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"**

"**Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."**

Future Ron and Hermione looked sad at the mention of Mad-Eye, who was currently looking intently at the couple and came to the conclusion that he had died in their time.

**Harry led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing and chattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances; Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait;**

"Wonderful descriptions there Harry." Both Ron's said, voices dripping with sarcasm.

**Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill, badly scarred and long-haired; Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry; Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink; Lupin, grayer, more lined; Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; Kingsley, bald and broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling; and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy beady hound's eyes and matted hair.**

"Once again, nice descriptions." Fred snorted

"Why is Dung there?" Sirius asked.

"Because we were one short." Future Hermione said.

"One short for what?" Hermione asked herself.

"The book will explain."

**Harry's heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met.**

"Why did I try to strangle Mudungus?" Harry asked hid future friends

"Because he tried to nick your stuff." Future Ron said.

"**Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" he called across the room.**

"**He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley, "You're more important."**

"**Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glistened there.**

Remus and Tonks blushed.

"**You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.**

"**I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."**

"**That's brilliant, congrat –"**

"**All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub, and silence fell in the kitchen. Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you.** **Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely."**

**"Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."**

"The what?" Harry asked

"**The what?"**

"**The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic!-**

"Oh."

**If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters."**

"**We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."**

**Harry could not help but agree with the unknown Thicknesse.**

"Don't agree with him, he's an ass-"

"RONALD!"

"**So what are we going to do?"**

"**We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."**

**Harry could see flaws in this plan; however, he held his tongue to give Mad-Eye the chance to address them.**

**Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or" – Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen – "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"**

**Harry nodded.**

"**So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen.**

"**The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight.**

**We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's – you get the idea."**

"Why do I get the feeling that this plan is not going to work." Hermione asked.

"Because it's Harry and he has the worst luck." Ron said as if that explained everything… which it does.

"It's true." Future Ron and Hermione agreed as Harry started to protest.

"**Yeah," said Harry, not entirely truthfully, because he could still spot a gaping hole in the plan.**

"I can see it too." Ginny said frowning slightly, "There's only one Harry, it'll be obvious where he is going because only he looks like Harry."

"Isn't it obvious?" Ron asked and blushed slightly when everyone who didn't get it, basically everyone but Dumbledore and Lupin. "Ginny, you said it yourself, there's only one person who looks like Harry." At everyone's blank and confused looks, he continued, "We need several people to look like harry and for that we'll need-"

"Polyjuice Potion!" Hermione finished in shock "Ron, that's brilliant!"

Ron's ears turned red and said "Always the tone of surprise." Everyone was gaping in shock.

"What's Polyjuice Potion?" Ginny asked.

"A potion that allows a person to change into another person for about one hour, depending on how long the potion is brewed for." Future Hermione said.

Fred and George exchanged glances. _When did their little brother get so smart?_

"**You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"**

"**Er – yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once" – he performed a quick headcount – "fourteen of us fly off toward Tonks's parents?"**

"Polyjuice Potion"

"We know, Hermione"

"Oh, shut it Ron."

"**Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Fourteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house."**

**From inside his cloak Moody now withdrew a flask of what looked like mud. There was no need for him to say another word; Harry understood the rest of the plan immediately.**

"**No!" he said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"**

"**I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.**

**"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives - !"**

"—**because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.**

"Just how many times have you three risked your lives?" Professor McGonagall asked

"Now or in their time?" Hermione said

"Let's go with in the Future." Sirius said

"Well," Future Ron started as everyone turned to them. "There was Fluffy,"

"The Forbidden Forest," Future Hermione put in

"A chess set,"

"A Stone,"

"You-Know-Who,"

"A tree and some potions"

"Some giant spiders,"

"A giant snake,"

"A diary and You-Know-Who,"

"A werewolf-no offense Remus,"

"A tree,"

"Some dementors,"

"A fake professor,"

"You-Know-Who and Death Eaters,"

"A bloody horrible toad of a professor,"

"A giant-well sort of,"

"Death Eaters,"

"You-Know-Who,"

"Malfoy,"

"Snape,"

"Oak Mead,"

"More Death Eaters,"

"And all of this bloody book." Future Ron finished and everyone was sitting there gaping in shock. "I think we got everything…"

"We might have missed a few." Future Hermione said offhandedly. Mr. Weasley finally found his voice and continued to read.

"**This is different, pretending to be me –"**

**"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."**

Everyone chuckled slightly (Except Harry, of course). Most would have laughed louder but were still slightly dazed from the things that the golden trio has nearly been killed by.

**Harry did not smile.**

"**You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."**

"**Well, that's the plan scuppered," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."**

"**Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," said Fred.**

At this, everyone started to laugh except Harry who protested meekly "I'm not scrawny." That caused Sirius to give a bark of laughter and say "James was the same way till mid fifth year."

**"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."**

"**If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk."**

"It's weird to think that we're of age." Hermione said looking thoughtful and Harry and Ron nodded.

**Mundungus shrugged and grimaced; the magical eye swerved sideways to glance at him out of the side of Moody's head.**

"**Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."**

"**But this is mad, there's no need –"**

**"No need!" snarled Moody. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven."**

"At least we have that." Tonks said, not noticing that Future Ron were staring at the table, to not give anything away, and Dumbledore was looking thoughtful.

**Harry caught Hermione's eye and looked away at once.**

"What was that about?" Fred and George asked and Remus gasped.

"Voldemort made six Horcruxes, didn't he?" He asked the Future couple, making everyone pale when they nodded.

"Six" Mrs. Weasley whispered quietly.

"But two were already destroyed at that time and we knew what the third was." Future Hermione said, not mentioning that they didn't know _where_ the locket was.

"What were the first two?" Bill asked.

"And how were they destroyed?" Ginny questioned the two.

"Well, there was Tom Riddles Diary in second year," Future Ron said and Ginny pailed.

"That was a Horcrux?" She said shocked and they nodded.

"It was destroyed by Harry stabbing it with a Basilisk fang in the Chamber of Secrets." Future Hermione stated.

"What was the other?" Sirius asked "And also, isn't the Chamber of Secrets just a legend?"

"We can fill you in later." Future Hermione said "And the other Horcrux" she spat the word like it was Bellatrix's name, "was Marvolo Gaunt's ring."

"What is that?" McGonagall inquired.

"Er- we'll tell you later, Professor." Future Ron said

"**So, Potter – some of your hair, if you please."**

**Harry glanced at Ron, who grimaced at him in a just-do-it sort of way.**

"Thanks for the help." Harry said

"Welcome." Ron said, grinning cheekily.

"**Now!" barked Moody.**

**With all of their eyes upon him, Harry reached up to the top of his head, grabbed a hank of hair, and pulled.**

"**Good," said Moody, limping forward as he pulled the stopper out of the flask of potion. "Straight in here, if you please."**

**Harry dropped the hair into the mudlike liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.**

"Wow." People exclaimed.

"What?" Harry asked confused

"The closer to Gold the Polyjuice Potion is, the purer your soul is." Lupin explained

"**Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione,**

Ron raised his eyebrows at Hermione, who blushed

"Oh, you know what I mean." She said

**before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows, blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you know what I mean – Goyle's potion tasted like bogies."**

"And how would you know that?" Mrs. Weasley asked sternly.

"Er- tell you later!" Ron said hurriedly.

"**Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," said Moody.**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur lined up in front of Aunt Petunia's gleaming sink.**

"**We're one short," said Lupin.**

"**Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.** **"I'm a said, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.**

**"Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."**

**Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Moody was already pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.**

**"Altogether, then … "**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats; At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.**

"That sounds bloody unpleasant." Fred and George said.

**Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.**

**Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow – we're identical!"**

Everyone roared laughing and Fred and George took a bow

"I think I look better as Harry." Fred said

"No, I look the best." George said crossing his arms. The twins glared at each other for a second before bursting out laughing.

"**I dunno, though, I think I'm still better-looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.**

"See! My future self agrees with me!"

"**Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me – I'm 'ideous."**

"Thanks." Harry said sarcastically

"You're talking to a book." Hermione said to him

"And you don't?" Ron asked and Hermione glared at him. Mr. Weasley started to read before Hermione could open her mouth to retort.

"**Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."**

**The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgangers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own.**

"Sorry." The people who were Harry said.

"**I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.**

"Why would Ginny say that you had a tattoo on your chest?" Bill asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know!" Harry exclaimed and Future Ron and Hermione glanced and smiled at each other.

"**Harry, your eyesight really is awful," said Hermione, as she put on glasses.**

"No," Fred gasped

"I thought he wore glasses because he had brilliant eyesight!" George said sarcastically.

"Shut up" Hermione mumbled and Ron laughed. She glared at him

**Once dressed, the fake Harrys took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.**

"**Good," said Moody, as at last seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom –"**

"**Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.**

"**Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody, and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungus as he continued, "Arthur and Fred –"**

"**I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing. "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"**

"**Sorry, George –"**

"**I'm only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really –"**

"That isn't the time Weasley!" Mad-Eye snarled

"**Enough messing around!" snarled Moody. "The other one – George or Fred or whoever you are – you're with Remus. Miss Delacour –"**

"**I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."**

"Theastral?" Harry asked

"A skeleton winged horse. Can only be seen by people who've seen somebody die. Pull the Hogwarts carriages." Future Ron said.

"And can you two see them?" Mr. Weasley asked and Future Ron and Hermione hesitated, and then nodded, causing their past selves to pale and Mrs. Weasley to choke on a sob.

"Who?" Tonks asked quietly, breaking the deadly silence

"Well, I think the first person we actually saw die was a Death Eater named Gibbon in sixth year." Future Hermione said quietly

"How on Earth did you see a Death Eater get killed?" Mrs. Weasley asked holding a hand over her heart

"Er-" Future Hermione hesitated, not sure if she should say but then a bright light flashed once again.

_The image of the empty corridor outside the Astronomy tower hung there and everyone in the room went dead quiet. Suddenly, the image of Draco Malfoy appeared._

"Who's that with Mr. Malfoy?" Kingsley asked, squinting to see the faces of the large group of people following Malfoy and everyone in the room paled when the group came into view and, as clear as day, the masks and robes of the Death Eater became visible.

"_You-" Malfoy began in a slightly shaky voice and pointed at a few Death Eaters "Come with me. The rest of you, stay here." And with that, Malfoy's group ran up the Astronomy Tower's stairs and one Death Eater put up some sort of barrier in the opening of the stairway._

"How did Death Eaters get into the castle?" McGonagall asked

"Through the Room of Requirement." Future Ron said darkly.

"The what?" Tonks asked

"We'll explain later." Future Hermione said as the sound of running footsteps were heard coming from the image.

_Ron, Ginny, Neville, Lupin, Tonks, Bill, and McGonagall came into view at the end of the corridor and the Death Eaters turned around to look at them._

"What were you two doing there?" Mrs. Weasley asked Ron and Ginny sternly, completely forgetting about Future Ron, who had lived through that, and they shrugged.

"_A fight!" A Death Eater screeched in glee. "Avada Kedavera!" The small group ducked and suddenly the corridor was ablaze in multi-coloured light from different hexes and curses. Everyone was locked in a duel with at least two Death Eaters._

The people in the room watched in horror as one Death Eater broke away from the fight and ran towards the tower, blowing up the ceiling as he went. Many in the room were white as snow and gasped as you could see the Death Eater Ron was fighting fire the Killing Curse and have it brush through his hair, missing him by less than an inch.

_A blood-curdling scream pierced the air as Bill was knocked over by one of the Death Eaters._

"_Stupefy!" You could barely make out Ron's yell as the Death Eater, now clearly Greyback, was blasted off Bill, who did not get up. The Death Eater Lupin was fighting started to fire Killing Curses at random, blasting apart the walls, shattering windows, and nearly killing everyone fighting. The Death Eater who had escaped the fight now returned and fired a curse that nearly hit Neville. One of the Curses that Lupin's Death Eater was firing hit Gibbon in the chest and he dropped to the ground. Neville ran at the barrier but was pushed back, landing ten feet away in a heap._

"You're losing." Mad-Eye said grimly, not helping the mood in the room.

"Wait, where's Harry?" Bill asked "He's not in the fight."

"Yeah, neither is Hermione." Ginny said.

"Luna and I were guarding Snape's door." Future Hermione said quietly.

"Luna who?" Hermione asked

"Luna Lovegood." Future Ron said smiling slightly "Brilliant fighter she is."

"But where am I?" Harry asked

"With Dumbledore." Future Ron said.

_Through the thick dust, Snape came running through and rushed up the barrier. Lupin tried to follow but, just like Neville, he was thrown back and rejoined the fight. A few minutes later, Snape and Malfoy ran down the stairs and through the corridor_

"_**It's over! Time to go!" Snape shouted**__ and the Death Eaters started to retreat with the ones who had just ran down the stairs._

The image went hazy, and then disappeared.

"What was that?" Fred asked. He and George were looking slightly shocked, not only had their elder brother been attacked, but they had seen their two younger siblings in a bloody battle!

"Er-"Future Ron said "Malfoy let Death Eaters into the castle and then there was a battle by the Astronomy Tower, Snape killed Dumbledore, and then the Death Eaters ran off."

"May we talk about this later, Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir." Future Hermione said.

**Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.**

"**Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral –"**

**Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kingsley's smile; Harry knew that Hermione too lacked confidence on a broomstick. "Which leaves you and me, Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at him.**

"Ha!" Sirius laughed, breaking the tension, "Nice one!" Tonks turned slightly red.

**Ron did not look quite as pleased as Hermione.**

Everyone laughed at that as Tonks pouted.

"**An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."**

"**That's great," said Harry, not altogether truthfully.**

"**We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody,**

"They would." Kingsley said thoughtfully as Hermione looked at Ron worriedly as he was going to be on a broom with Tonks. _He's going to be ok_ she reassured herself and glanced at Future Ron _see, he's alive in the future, there's nothing to worry about._

**who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who looks at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on …"**

**Harry hurried to gather his rucksack, Firebolt, and Hedwig's cage and followed the group to the dark back garden.**

**On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up onto a great black thestral by Kingsley, Fleur onto the other by Bill. Hagrid was standing ready beside the motorbike, goggles on.**

"**Is this it? Is this Sirius's bike?"**

"**The very same," said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. "An' the last time yeh was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!"**

"So," Fred said

"Last week." George finished.

"Fred! George!" Mrs. Weasley reprimanded

"What? Hagrid's huge and Harry is a scrawny git!" Fred defended and Mr. Weasley started to read to avoid the argument that was about to happen.

**Harry could not help but feel a little humiliated as he got into the sidecar. It placed him several feet below everybody else: Ron smirked at the sight of him sitting there like a child in a bumper car.**

Both Ron's in the room did so now and Harry glared at both, making everyone in the room laugh as he tried to glare at two people who were sitting on different sides of the table.

**Harry stuffed his rucksack and broomstick down by his feet and rammed Hedwig's cage between his knees. He was extremely uncomfortable.**

**"Arthur's done a bit o' tinkerin'," said Hagrid, quite oblivious to Harry's discomfort. He settled himself astride the motorcycle, which creaked slightly and sank inches into the ground. "It's got a few tricks up its sleeves now. Tha' one was my idea." He pointed a thick finger at a purple button near the speedometer.**

Mrs. Weasley glared at Mr. Weasley and a few people glanced at each other worriedly.

**"Please be careful, Hagrid." said Mr. Weasley, who was standing beside them, holding his broomstick. "I'm still not sure that was advisable and it's certainly only to be used in emergencies."**

**"All right, then." said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."**

I think that might be a little exaggerated, Mad-Eye" Tonks said

**Everybody motioned their heads.**

**"Hold tight now, Ron," said Tonks, and Harry saw Ron throw a forcing, guilty look at Lupin before placing his hands on each side of her waist.**

Everyone at the table laughed despite the tension of the room and Harry smirked at Ron, who was blushing. Hermione was stifling a giggle behind her hand.

**Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life: It roared like a dragon, and the sidecar began to vibrate.**

"**Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow.**

"Why do I think that isn't going to happen?" Sirius asked seriously.

**On the count of three. One … two .. THREE."**

**There was a great roar from the motorbike, and Harry felt the sidecar give a nasty lurch. He was rising through the air fast, his eyes watering slightly, hair whipped back off his face. Around him brooms were soaring upward too; the long black tail of a thestral flicked past. His legs, jammed into the sidecar by Hedwig's cage and his rucksack, were already sore and starting to go numb. So great was his discomfort that he almost forgot to take a last glimpse of number four Privet Drive. By the time he looked over the edge of the sidecar he could no longer tell which one it was.**

**And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded.**

"NO!" People were shouting.

**At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious –**

**Screams, a blaze of green light on every side: Hagrid gave a yell and the motorbike rolled over. Harry lost any sense of where they were. Streetlights above him, yells around him, he was clinging to the sidecar for dear life. Hedwig's cage, the Firebolt, and his rucksack slipped from beneath his knees –**

**"No – HELP!"**

**The broomstick spun too, but he just managed to seize the strap of his rucksack and the top of the cage as the motorbike swung the right way up again. A second's relief, and then another burst of green light. The owl screeched and fell to the floor of the cage.**

"Hedwig!" Harry shouted looking stunned and Hermione and Ginny looked close to tears.

**"No – NO!"**

**The motorbike zoomed forward; Harry glimpsed hooded Death Eaters scattering as Hagrid blasted through their circle.**

**"Hedwig – Hedwig –"**

**But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a mass of people moving, flares of green light, two pairs of people on brooms soaring off into the distance, but he could not tell who they were –**

**"Hagrid, we've got to go back, we've got to go back!" he yelled** **over the thunderous roar of the engine, pulling out his wand, ramming Hedwig's cage into the floor, refusing to believe that she was dead. "Hagrid, TURN AROUND!"**

"You can't! You'll be killed!" Bill exclaimed.

**"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle.**

"**Stop – STOP!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wriggling around he cried, "Stupefy!" and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.**

**"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge.**

**A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into being in midair.**

"Wicked." Fred and George whispered. Both were trying to push down the fear that one of them would be killed.

**Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.**

**More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands; they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of multicolored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening –**

"You think of that!" Ginny yelled exasperated.

**"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid and he jabbed at a second button. This time a great net burst from the bike's exhaust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unconscious friend had caught up. He bloomed suddenly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the motorbike, all shooting curses after it.**

**"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight!" yelled Hagrid, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.**

**With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. **

"Brilliant!" Fred and George yelled wide eyed.

"Forge are you thinking-"

"Yes, Gred I am." A wicked grin spread across their features.

"Whatever you two are thinking-"

Mr. Weasley quickly started to read before his wife could start to yell.

**Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame, and at the same time felt the sidecar sway ominously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceleration.**

**"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto the back by the surge of speed; nobody was steering now, and the sidecar was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.**

**"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flowery pink umbrella.**

**"Hagrid! No! Let me!"**

**"REPARO!"**

**There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely.**

"No." Everyone groaned and Ron and Hermione looked worriedly at their friend.

**Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height –**

**In desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"**

The trio grinned at each other.

"Remember, its levi-_o-_sa, not levio-_sa._" Ron said with a slight grin and everyone else was feeling left out if the inside joke as the three laughed at eachother and the Future duo grinned widely.

**The sidecar rose like a cork, unsteerable but at least still airborne. He had but a split second's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.**

**"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar beginning to sink again: Crouching as low as he could, he pointed at the middle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "Impedimenta!"**

**The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible barrier: One of his fellows almost collided with him –**

**Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat –**

**"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!"**

**A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his rucksack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid.**

**As they soared upward, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Confringo!"**

**He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded;the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his companion fell back and vanished.**

**"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself – yeh've got no room –"**

**"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.**

**As the curses came shooting across the intervening space again, Hagrid swerved and zigzagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button again, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike – Stan –**

**"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.**

**"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"**

"How'd he know?" Hermione asked shocked

"Last summer, Harry used the disarming spell against Voldemort in front of at least a dozen Death Eaters. They'll think it is his signature spell." Lupin explained.

**The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and disappeared from view.**

**"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"**

**"I don't know!"**

**But Harry was afraid: The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!"; how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its menace. Where were they?**

**He clambered around on the seat to face forward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.**

**"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"**

**"Hold on tight, then, Harry!"**

**There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the exhaust: Harry felt himself slipping backwards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars –**

Everyone held their breath…

**"I think we've lost 'em Harry, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.**

…And let out a breath of relief until Mad-Eye said "It wouldn't be that easy."

**But Harry was not convinced; Fear lapped at him as he looked left and right for pursuers he was sure would come. . . . Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand. . . . It's him. . . it's the real one. . . . They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan. . . .**

**"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.**

**Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed remote as stars.**

**Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire:**

**as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind –**

"NO!" People screamed. Sirius, Fred, George, and Ron were swearing loudly.

**And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or thestral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again –**

"Good god, he can fly." McGonagall said faintly

**Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clinging on for dear life, Harry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike spiraled through the air, completely out of control –**

**Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broomstick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm –**

**"NO!"**

**With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater;** **to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broomstick –**

"HAGRID!"

**Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, "Mine!"**

**It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, "Avada –"**

**As the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord.**

Future Ron and Hermione looked at each other with wide eyes. _So Harry was telling the truth!_

"Impossible." Lupin breathed

"There have been some cases over the years where a wand has acted of its own accord." Dumbledore said

**He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, "NO!" Somehow, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire button. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight toward the ground.**

**"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid – Accio Hagrid!"**

"That'll just bring you to him." Kingsley said sadly

**The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see nothing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: He was going to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"**

**He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more –**

**And then Voldemort vanished**

"What?"

"He must be inside the boundaries of my parents' house"

"Oh."

**Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. He pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groped for the brake, but with an earsplitting, ground trembling crash, he smashed into a muddy pond.**

"That's it." Mr. Weasley said quietly, shutting the book.

**A/N: Tell me what you think! Review and tell your friends, family, and anyone about this story! Please, go to my profile and vote on my poll!**


	7. Explanations

**A/N: So here's a chapter with some explanations. I wrote this at like midnight so it's not my best. Anyways, I hope you like it! My poll is closed now and I'm going to bring in a few new characters soon. I'm going to put the character that got the second to most votes in first because I'm at a good point in the story where he would come in and then the character that got the most votes will come in a few chapters after. Anyways, hope you like it! Review with your opinion!**

**A/N: I do not own the Harry Potter series no matter how much I wish I did.**

**Explanations**

Everyone sat around the table for a few minutes, absorbing the information from the previous chapters.

"So Voldemort can fly now?" Tonks asked and the Future couple looked at each other.

"Yes." Future Hermione said. "It's bloody scary."

"So," Sirius said "Explain."

"What?" Future Ron said

"Horcruxes! What the hell are they?"

"Well," Future Hermione started, "They're quite horrible," Her and Future Ron shuddered at the memories of the locket and the locket seemed to grow cold in Future Ron's pocket. "Horcruxes are pieces of a soul in an object and they have to be created by murder." She said in a slightly monotone voice and the colour in everyone's faces drained.

"How do you destroy them?" McGonagall asked.

"You have to destroy it beyond magical repair." Future Ron explained

"Like Harry stabbing the Diary with a Basilisk fang." Future Hermione said

"Which reminds me, what happened in your second year?" Sirius asked and a few of the adults nodded. Ginny paled horribly and looked down at the floor. Harry, who was sitting next to her, put an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, to sum it all up," Hermione said "The Chamber of Secrets was opened, a few muggle-born students were petrified, including myself; a student was taken into the chamber, Harry, Ron, and Lockhart went into the chamber to rescue her, Lockhart lost his memory, part of the chamber caved in, separating Ron and Harry, Harry found the student, killed the Basilisk with Gryffindor's sword, stabbed the diary, getting rid of diary Tom Riddle; saved the student and the school from being shut down. Did I forget anything?" she frowned as everyone around the table who didn't know everything (everyone except the Ron's, Hermione's, Harry, Ginny, and Dumbledore) turn white as snow and had looks on their faces that would be comical if it wasn't for the situation they are talking about.

"I don't think so" Ron said, looking at his sister worriedly. He hated seeing her like that.

"How in the world did you get into the Chamber of Secrets?" Lupin sighed as if he didn't want to know the answer but was o curious to refuse asking.

"It's in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Harry said

"That's a girls bathroom." George said shocked and then he and Fred started to laugh

"You two went into the girls bathroom!" Fred laughed "Brilliant!"

"No!" Mrs. Weasley hissed "Not brilliant!"

"Never mind that," Tonks said "How do you get in?"

"You say something in Parseltounge." Future Ron said

"So only Parselmouths can get in?" Kingsley asked

"Not exactly," Future Hermione said and everyone looked at her curiously except Future Ron, "If you can

imitate a word in Parseltounge, you can get in."

"Who would be stupid enough to imitate Parseltounge? It's the hardest language to learn, let alone imitate!" Tonks asked

"Me," Ron said looking thoughtful and everyone looked at him, including his brothers, shocked. Future Ron and Future Hermione looked at each other and blushed slightly when they remembered what happened in the Chamber after Ron had imitated Parseltounge.

"You can imitate voices?" Hermione asked and Ron nodded.

"Since when?" Fred demanded. _Was that how George and I kept getting in trouble for things we never said as kids?_ He wondered.

"Since when?" Ron repeated back in an exact replica of Fred's voice.

"That's bloody brilliant!" George said awed

"Why would you even think about going back into that Chamber!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed

"I wasn't." Ron said "You asked who would be stupid enough to imitate Parseltounge. I might be able to do it if I heard it recently."

"How did you get into the chamber the first time?" Mr. Weasley asked "And how would you hear it recently?" Ron glanced at Harry

"Er-" Ron said

"I'm a Parselmouth." Harry blurted out, looking at the table as people stared at him.

"I wonder how that happened." Sirius said thoughtfully

"Well, James wasn't one," Lupin said

"And Lily was a muggleborn."Sirius said

"I wonder-"

"We'll talk about this later." Dumbledore said with an air of finality.

"So who wants to read next?" Mr. Weasley asked

"I will." Tonks said, taking the book from him.


	8. The Fallen Warrior

**A/N: I'm alive! I know this is really late but I've been really busy with schoolwork and my personal life… and more schoolwork… Anyways, here's the next chapter! I'm going to try to update as soon as possible! Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in bold, that belongs to the talented J.K. Rowling...Except for the author note...i own that.**

**The Fallen Warrior**

Mr. Weasley opened his mouth to ask who was going to read but was interrupted by the hovering light. All the conversation in the room ceased and everyone was staring at it, waiting for the next video to begin or another note to show up. What the people sitting around the table least expected was it to grow larger, becoming so bright that everyone was forced to look away. There was a thump of something landing on the table and then a loud crash followed by a "Bloody hell!"

When the light dimmed, everyone looked at the spot where Future Ron and Hermione had sat only to see that they weren't there. Groans were heard on the floor followed by a few exclamations of shock.

"Ron? Hermione? What the- I was just- Where am I?" An extremely confused and alarmed male voice said.

"Perce!" Future Ron's voice exclaimed and all the present Weasley's frowned. The three figures on the floor stood up and everyone gaped at the sight of pompous Percy's robes disheveled and dirty with his glasses askew and messed up hair. He looked very puzzled as he looked around the room and saw his whole family and some of the Order sitting around the table. Percy stood there with his jaw dropped and looked back and forth between the Ron's and Hermione's. His gaze settled on Dumbledore and he jumped back in shock.

"What's going on?" He said once he was able to put a sentence together and Future Ron pointed his wand at him

"What did Fred and George try to get me to do when I was five?" Future Ron demanded

"A-an Unbreakable Vow." Percy answered and Mrs. Weasley glared at Fred and George at the reminder, who were glaring at Future Ron, who was putting his wand away.

"Just had to be sure." He said

"Ron, what's going on? One minute I'm with-"He was cut off by Fred

"What are _you_ doing here?" He said coldly and Percy blinked

"I-I don't know."

"Well, apparently someone from the future thought it would be brilliant to send us to the summer before my fifth year and read a bloody book about Harry's thoughts from this past year." Future Ron told him bluntly.

"W-Whhat?" Percy said dazed, looking around the room at his parents shell shocked parents to his pissed siblings to the Ron and Hermione from his time. "How is that possible?"

"I dunno. Ask whoever sent us here." Future Ron shrugged and a note appeared on the table. Dumbledore picked it up and read it out loud.

"_Hello again!_

_ So as you can see, we sent Percy back from 1998 too. Enjoy and please don't kill, maim, or seriously injure each other!_

_Signed,_

_The Bishop, the Rook, and the Knight"_

"Well," Dumbledore said, breaking the silence while Future Ron gave Percy a look that said _I'll explain later_. McGonagall conjured another chair.

"Should we continue?" said Kingsley and everyone muttered their agreement as Percy still looked confused.

Tonks picked up the book "**The Fallen Warrior**" She read and everyone glanced nervously at each other

"**Hagrid?"**

**Harry struggled to raise himself out of the debris of metal and** **leather that surrounded him: his hands sank into inches of muddy** **water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone** **and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment. Something hot** **and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out** **of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was** **Hagrid.**

"**Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me—"**

**But the dark mass did not stir.**

"No!" Several people exclaimed

"Not Hagrid!" Harry moaned and Ginny gripped his hand. Harry was shocked to find that he didn't want to let go. _Wait…didn't he like Cho?_ He thought.

"**Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Potter?"**

**Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted, "They've** **crashed, Ted! Crashed in the garden!"**

"My parents" Tonks grinned

**Harry's head was swimming.**

"Why Harry-"

"That's not good-"

"It should be running."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"**Hagrid." he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.**

**The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions,** **with a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been** **re-grown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.**

**"Hagrid?"**

**He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamp lit sitting room. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watching Harry anxiously.**

"Dad." Tonks said

"Yeah, we know." Sirius grumbled and Tonks stuck her tongue out at him.

**"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's seeing to him now. How are you feeling? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks – Dora's father."**

**Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.**

**"Voldemort –"**

"Do you think it still works here?" Percy asked, to the confusion of everyone except for the Future Ron and Hermione who understood immediately what he was talking about.

"I don't think so." Future Hermione said, thinking intently "They put the charm on it in our time and we're in the past now."

"What the ruddy hell are you talking about?" Ron asked

"Nothing." Future Ron, Hermione, and Percy said and everyone sighed, knowing that they wouldn't get anything out of them.

**"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"**

**"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them – we were chased –"**

"That's an understatement." Fred and George said

**"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved tonight, I thought –"**

**"They knew," said Harry.**

"Snape" Was heard being growled throughout the room.

**Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.**

**"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction."**

**Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.**

**He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a little but miraculously alive.**

**"Harry!"**

**Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs.**

**"Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."**

"Well, Harry can survive the impossible!" Fred and George stage whispered dramatically, causing most of the room to roll their eyes.

**"Yeah, me too. I can't believe –"**

**Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.**

**"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.**

**"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shouting at."**

**"Oh, I'm – I'm sorry."**

**As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced: Her hair was a light's oft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclamation.**

**"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymphadora?"**

Lupin's jaw tightened slightly as he thought about what could happen to his…wife?

**"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."**

**She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions, if any of the others had died; it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair . . .**

**"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a sudden. "We've got to get back to the Burrow and find out – then we'll be able to send you word, or – or Tonks will, once she's –"**

**"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three minutes, if you want to take it."**

**"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I –"**

**He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words occurred to him that he did not seem hollow and insincere.**

"Like what?" Fred and George said grinning cheekily and Harry rolled his eyes.

**"I'll tell Tonks – Dora – to send word, when she . . . Thanks for patching us up, thanks for everything, I –"**

**He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door lintel.**

**"There you go, son. That's the Portkey."**

**Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing table.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave.**

**"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"**

"Hagrid…" Mrs. Weasley muttered

"He didn't know." Kingsley said, always the voice of reason, and Mrs. Weasley blushed and looked down.

**"She . . . she got hit," said Harry.**

**The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.**

Harry winced and looked down at the reminder.

**Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.**

**"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life –"**

**"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hairbrush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger to it in time.**

**With a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hurtled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams.**

"What? What happened?" Mrs. Weasley fussed and paled.

"I'm sure it's just you and Ginny, Molly." Remus said and she sighed in relief.

**Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.**

**"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.**

"Is no one else back?" Ginny said alarmed

**"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.**

Ginny blushed at saying the same thing as Harry and the Twins grinned.

**The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.**

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's faces both mirrored the description as they thought of their children, and Hermione, who were still out there with the Death Eaters

"**The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her. "We were surrounded the moment we took off—they knew it was tonight—I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us-"**

**He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the pleas for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but—**

"Harry, not everything is your fault." Hermione sighed and Tonks read before Harry could respond.

**"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.**

"**Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal purposes?"**

"Yeah," Bill snorted, "For medical purposes."

"If that isn't a lie then I don't know what is." Tonks said grinning

"Nymphadora," Moody barked, "Keep reading! I don't have all day."

"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks growled, turning her hair flaming red.

"Just read," Lupin said and Tonks blushed slightly

**She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information at once.**

**"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby.**

Ron froze at that and Hermione gripped his hand, surprising him. All of the Weasley's, including Percy, paled dramatically and glanced worriedly at Ron.

_Please not Ron._ Harry was thinking _Not Ron._

Meanwhile, Lupin gripped Tonks' hand as they both turned white.

"Er- you all know that I live because I am sitting right here?" Future Ron said awkwardly as everyone stared at him and the colour started to come back into everyone's faces.

**"And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. **

And the colour in everyone's faces drained again. _Not Fred!_ Nearly everyone thought.

**You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin ought to be back in about a minute."**

**"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot several feet away.**

Everyone's heads snapped up

_Please be Ron _Hermione begged in her head, still clutching Ron's hand like it was her lifeline.

**A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared,- spinning and then falling. **

"Thank merlin!" Mrs. Weasley and Tonks exclaimed. Everyone looked at Tonks as she turned slightly red. Hermione couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed and upset that it wasn't Ron while her future counterpart was remembering how scared she felt while she was waiting for Ron, not knowing if she'd ever see him alive again. She gripped Future Ron's hand tighter.

**Harry knew immediately that there was something wrong: **

Everyone turn as white as Hedwig.

**Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.**

"No!" Nearly everyone shouted and Dumbledore looked grave. Fred looked like he was about to cry.

**Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.**

Nearly every person was a shade of green. Fred looked worriedly at his twin. Mrs. Weasley sobbed onto Mr. Weasley's shoulder.

"Well," Fred said and the room looked at him, "At least you'll be able to tell us apart now." Mrs. Weasley let out a choked sob.

**No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.**

"What are you doing?" said Ginny ferociously, mixed with shouts of indignation from the room.

"I'm sure that I'm just checking if it's actually Harry or not. It could be an imposter." Lupin said

**"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"**

**Lupin ignored him.**

**"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"**

"It was a grindylow, wasn't it?" Said Harry and Lupin nodded.

**"A – a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"**

"You don't have to repeat yourself" Tonks said cheekily.

**Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.**

**"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.**

**"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."**

"Don't say anything." Lupin growled towards Fred and George, who had opened their mouths to comment.

**"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.**

"Your half-giant." Mad-Eye gruffed as if it explained everything, which it didn't to the one's not familiar with that particular brew.

**"You're half-giant," said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only."**

"Don't say a word." Hermione grumbled with a Weasley red face to Harry and Ron as they had a look on their face that clearly told her that they, like Hermione, were remembering the cat hair incident from their second year. The rest of the room exchanged confused glances.

"**None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort** **only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."**

**"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you escape?"**

**Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.**

"That must have shocked me." Lupin said. Tonks and Sirius chuckled as they imagined his face when Lupin heard that.

**"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"**

**"I . . ." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpike . . . . You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of – well, he doesn't know what he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"**

**Lupin looked aghast.**

**"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"**

"I'm not going to kill someone just because they're there. That's Voldemort job." Harry said stubbornly.

"Well said." Sirius said grinning as Lupin looked shocked.

**"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. Lupin was reminding him of the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.**

"What's Dumbledore's Army?" Kingsley asked, glancing at Dumbledore like the rest of the room.

"I have no clue as to what that could possibly be, but Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger might be able to inform us." Everyone turned to the future duo.

"Wait- isn't Dumbledore's Army –"Percy was cut off by Future Ron, who slapped his hand over his brother's mouth, efficiently shutting him up.

Future Hermione rolled her eyes and explained, "Dumbledore's Army was a secret defense group Ron, Harry, and I created in fifth year because of Umbridge's corrupt teaching method. Harry taught a rather large group of students' defensive spells." Everyone in the room gaped at her. Tonks blinked a few times before continuing to read.

**"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"**

**"So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?" said Harry angrily.**

**"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters – frankly, most people! – would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"**

**Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance inside him.**

"Just a grain?" Sirius asked grinning

"Yeah, more like a mountain." Ron said

"Shut it." Harry grumbled.

**"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Voldemort's job."**

**Lupin's retort was lost:**

**Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again.**

Everybody was snickering at Hagrid, who would've turned bright red iff he had been there.

"Wait," Harry said, "Where's Hargid? If he's in the book, shouldn't he be here?" The Order members glanced at each other.

"We can say that he's on a _giant_ mission for the Order." Ron said smirking slightly and the Order looked at each other shocked.

"Read Nymphadora." Mad-eye ordered before any of the kids could inquire or figure out Hagrid's mission.

**"Will George be okay?"**

All the Weasley's looked up.

**All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.**

**"I think so, although there's no chance of replacing his ear, not when it's been cursed off –"**

"So help me when I find out who did that…" Mrs. Weasley trailed off, looking ferociously at the book. The people who sat nearest to her edged away slightly.

**Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms** **-but Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them.**

"Thank merlin." Harry and Ron sighed in relief, along with most of the room.

**Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.**

"**The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"**

"**Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him," said Lupin calmly.**

"Really?" Harry asked, looking shocked.

"It's true." Kingsley said.

**Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"**

**"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"**

"Snape." The room growled.

**"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."**

"Thank god." Mr. Weasley muttered

**"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"**

**"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."**

**Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.**

"Worried about a certain red-head Hermione?" Fred and George said, grinning at the blush that covered both Hermione's faces and both of Ron's ears turned pink.

**"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.**

**"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can –"**

"Fly." Everyone said darkly. Bother Hermione's paled, Hermione at the thought of being chased by Voldemort, and Future Hermione at the memory.

**"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."**

**"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"**

**"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.**

**"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"**

"Well there's obviously been a breakout." Bill said

"I know that now!" Both Hermione's said exasperated.

**Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.**

**"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up.** **Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"**

"Travers?" Sirius said, "Well this is bad."

"It gets worse." Future Ron whispered, but everyone heard him and they didn't like it.

**"He lost an ear," said Lupin.**

**"lost an - ?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.**

**"Snape's work," said Lupin.**

"Snape!" Everyone shouted but none as loud as Mrs. Weasley and the Twins.

"So help me when I see him-"

"…and we can turn his hair pink-"

"- And try out our new products. I think that the Wildfire Whiz-Bangs need some more testing."

**"**_**Snape?**_**" shouted Harry. "You didn't say –"**

**"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."**

"Sectumwhatsa?" Ginny asked.

"Sectumsempra." Future Ron said with a glance at Future Hermione, "It's a curse that Snape invented that can cut someone."

"I don't even want to know how you know that." McGonagall sighed wearily.

**Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?**

"Is that in order?" Tonks asked Harry

"What?" Harry blinked.

"Is that in order of who you're most worried about? Because if it is, I am extremely insulted!" Tonks exclaimed.

"Er-" Harry was spared from answering when everyone, including Tonks but excluding the obvious (Mad-eye and the Professors), burst out laughing.

"I'm just joking." She said with a wave of her hand.

**"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still tending to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his bleeding now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean gaping hole where George's ear had been.**

Everyone turned white and glanced at George, who was rubbing his ear.

**"How is he?"**

**Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much worse . . . . He's alive."**

"Yeah, it could have been so much worse." Lupin said, relieved that George hadn't died under his protection.

**"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."**

**"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.**

**"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.**

**"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her; he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the impulse, **

"Is there something you're not telling us, Harry?" Fred asked, the big brother in him coming out as Harry and Ginny both turned red. Future Ron and Hermione were both laughing and everyone looked at them.

"Harry and Ginny dated in our sixth year" Future Hermione said

"Mate, that's my sister!" Ron gaped.

"Wait, you said _dated._" Hermione said

"Yeah," Future Ron said, "Harry was being a noble git and broke it off." All the Weasley brothers were glaring slightly at Harry.

**there was a great crash from the kitchen.**

**"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"**

All of the non- Weasley's looked shocked at Mr. Weasley's outburst, as none of them had heard him shout before, including Dumbledore.

"Sounds like I'm home." Mr. Weasley said grimly.

"I have never heard you shout like that before Arthur." Sirius said gaping at the redhead.

"I have." All the Weasley's said, especially Ron, George, and Fred, the latter rubbed his left buttock at the bad memory.

**Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured.**

"Thank God." George muttered in relief.

"Don't worry," Fred said, "I won't go and die on you."

"Me neither." George said back and they both grinned at each other, not knowing the horrible fate that awaited them.

**"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"**

**"How is he?"**

**Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.**

"I probably couldn't." Fred said grimly.

**Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father's arrival, George stirred.**

**"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.**

**George's fingers groped for the side of his head.**

**"Saintlike," he murmured.**

"Horrible!" Fred exclaimed, "You call that a joke?"

**"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"**

"Is my mind affected?" George mocked. "No, that leprechaun over there is real!" Everyone laughed.

**"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see. . . I'm holy.**_**Holey**_**, Fred, geddit?"**

"Pathetic!" Fred sighed while shaking his head.

**Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.**

**"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for**_**holey**_**?"**

"See! Even I agree with myself!"

"Well-"

"Shut it Ron!"

**"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."**

"I'd rather you have your ear." Mrs. Weasley said sadly, looking as though she'd start sobbing at any moment.

**He looked around.**

**"Hi, Harry – you are Harry, right?"**

**"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.**

**"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"**

Everyone turned pale again. In all the relief that George was alright, they had forgotten about Ron and Bill not being back yet.

**"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded.**

**Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to accompany him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.**

**"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."**

"No, it's only a few miles away." Mr. Weasley said, worried about his youngest son's safety.

**Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Burrow, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, throbbing in his chest, clogging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.**

"Nice to know you care." Ron said and Hermione hit the back of his head.

"Idiot." She muttered.

**Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. **

"Don't compare me to him." Kingsley said with a small glint of humour in his eyes. A few people managed a small smile.

**Hagrid, Hermione, and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.**

**The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves –And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground –**

"Thank Merlin!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed and relief flooded everyone's faces.

**"It's them!" screamed Hermione.**

**Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.**

Everyone chuckled at her clumsiness.

"Stupid pebbles" Tonks muttered.

**"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms.**

Sirius and the Twins wolf-whistled and Lupin and Tonks blushed.

**His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly toward Harry and Hermione.**

**"You're okay," he mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.**

They wolf- whistled again but this time both Ron's and Hermione's turned red. Future Hermione clutched Future Ron's hand as she thought about how scared she was that he had died or been captured.

**"I thought – I thought –"**

_That you had been killed_ both Hermione's finished in their head.

**"'M all right," said Ron, patting her on the back. "'M fine."**

**"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom –"**

"That's very good, Ron" Lupin said looking impressed. Mad-Eye was also looking at Ron with approval.

**"You did?" said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.**

"Snog him, snog him" Fred and George chanted quietly under their breaths.

**"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, breaking free. "Are we the last back?"**

"I didn't mean it like that" Future Hermione whispered into Future Ron's ear while the whole room looked at Bill and Mad-Eye worriedly.

**"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron –"**

**She ran back inside.**

**"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.**

Everyone stared at the book in curiosity.

"A bitch and her husband." Future Ron muttered and Percy, who was sitting next to him, looked at him inquiringly.

**"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus . . . . Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us –"**

"So you got the Lestranges?" Sirius asked and Future Ron nodded as Future Hermione clenched his hand, if possible, even harder than before at the mention of Bellatrix.

**A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.**

The very same muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw.

**"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Harry, Hermione, and Kingsley.**

**They recounted the stories of their own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.**

**"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."**

**Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Harry thought he heard the faintest**_**pop**_**as Kingsley disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.**

**Mr. And Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.**

**"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons."**

"Don't be silly, Molly" Tonks said.

**"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.**

**"How's George?" asked Lupin.**

**"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.**

**"He's lost –"**

"Thanks for that explanation" Ron said sarcastically.

**But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.**

Everyone sighed at the reassurance that Bill and Fleur were alright.

**"Bill! Thank God, thank God –"**

**Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."**

The temperature in the room seemed to drop as everyone looked at Mad-Eye. Tonks sobbed into Lupin's chest and Harry wrapped his arm around the crying Ginny. Hermione laid her head on Ron's shoulder while her future counterpart looked like she was desperately trying not to break down sobbing.

"Everyone has to die someday." He barked, "Constant vigilance!"

Tonks wiped her eyes and continued to read.

**Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.**

**"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort – he can fly – went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and – there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail –"**

Everyone was silent as they listened to this. _How many deaths will we have to read about?_ Was the thought that raced through the minds of all the occupants of the room.

**"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.**

**They all stood looking at each other. Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be . . . . Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor . . .**

**At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. And Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.**

**"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's -?"**

**"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley, "Dead."**

**The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic.**

"Don't get too big-headed." Mad-Eye gruffed to Tonks who smirked through her tears.

**Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.**

**Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey and some glasses.**

"But Bill, not everyone is of age!" Mrs. Weasley said scandalized.

"Mum, considering what they just went through, I'd say some firewhiskey is appropriate." Bill argued.

**"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand, eh sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."**

**"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank.**

**"Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. The fire-whisky seared Harry's throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage.**

**"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.**

Cries of "Bastard", "Bastard-ass", and many other appellations were heard throughout the kitchen.

"Two seventeen year olds and a sixteen year old stayed behind and you disappeared when a snake faced man comes after you!" Bill said angrily, flushing Weasley red.

**The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear.**

**"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."**

**"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley. . . . "**

"Dung." Nearly everyone groaned.

**"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."**

"Snape." Growled the room.

"I think Snape is number one on my mums list of people to kill." Ron muttered to Harry and Hermione, who tried to stifle their snorts.

**She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently daring any of them to contradict her. Nobody did.**

**The only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchief. Harry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's – Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg. . . .**

**"No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. "I mean . . . if somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort."**

"'ear, 'ear!" Fred and George cheered.

**More silence followed his words. They were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more firewhisky for something to do. As he drank, he thought of Mad-Eye. Mad-Eye had always been scathing about Dumbledore's willingness to trust people.**

**"Well said, Harry," said Fred unexpectedly.**

**"Yeah, 'ear, 'ear," said George, with half a glance at Fred, the corner of whose mouth twitched.**

"'ear, 'ear!" they chorused again.

**Lupin was wearing an odd expression as he looked at Harry. It was close to pitying.**

"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.

"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, glancing at Sirius, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."

**"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.**

**"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."**

"Scary." Sirius commented.

**Harry knew what Lupin was getting at: that his father had been betrayed by his friend Peter Pettigrew.**

Lupin and Sirius sighed at the reminder of the dark path their old friend had taken all those years ago.

**He felt irrationally angry. He wanted to argue, but Lupin had turned away from him, set down his glass upon a side table, and addressed Bill, "There's work to do. I can ask Kingsley whether –"**

**"No," said Bill at once, "I'll do it, I'll come."**

**"Where are you going?" said Tonks and Fleur together.**

**"Mad-Eye's body," said Lupin. "We need to recover it."**

**"Can't it - ?" began Mrs. Weasley with an appealing look at Bill.**

"No." Lupin answered

**Nobody spoke. Lupin and Bill said good bye and left.**

**The rest of them now dropped into chairs, all except for Harry, who remained standing. The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence.**

**"I've got to go too," said Harry.**

**Ten pairs of startled eyes looked at him.**

**"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, "What are you talking about?"**

**"I can't stay here."**

**He rubbed his forehead; it was prickling again, he had not hurt like this for more than a year.**

**"You're all in danger while I'm here. I don't want –"**

**"But don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Weasley. "The whole point of tonight was to get you here safely, and thank goodness it worked. And Fleur's agreed to get married here rather than in France, we've arranged everything so that we can all stay together and look after you –"**

"You're getting married!" Ginny exclaimed and congratulations were given as Bill beamed. Mrs. Weasley smiled but on the inside was trying to see what Bill saw in Fleur, she's _French._

**She did not understand; she was making him feel worse, not better.**

**"If Voldemort finds out I'm here –"**

**"But why should he?" asked Mrs. Weasley.**

**"There are a dozen places you might be now, Harry," said Mr. Weasley. "He's got no way of knowing which safe house you're in."**

**"It's not me I'm worried for!" said Harry.**

**"We know that," said Mr. Weasley quietly, but it would make our efforts tonight seem rather pointless if you left."**

**"Yer not goin' anywhere," growled Hagrid. "Blimey, Harry, after all we wen' through ter get you here?"**

**"Yeah, what about my bleeding ear?" said George, hoisting himself up on his cushions.**

**"I know that –"**

**"Mad-Eye wouldn't want –"**

"I KNOW!" Harry bellowed

**"I KNOW!" Harry bellowed.**

**He felt beleaguered and blackmailed: Did they think he did not know what they had done for him, didn't they understand that it was for precisely that reason that he wanted to go now, before they had to suffer any more on his behalf? There was a long and awkward silence in which his scar continued to prickle and throb, and which was broken at last by Mrs. Weasley.**

"Harry," Hermione sighed

"You don't have to do everything all by yourself mate." Ron said quietly to Harry

**"Where's Hedwig, Harry?" she said coaxingly. "We can put her up with Pidwidgeon and give her something to eat."**

**His insides clenched like a fist. He could not tell her the truth. He drank the last of his firewhisky to avoid answering.**

"Harry,"

"You've got to lay off the firewhiskey-"

"Shut it." Harry said grumpily.

**"Wait till it gets out yeh did it again, Harry," said Hagrid. "Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!"**

**"It wasn't me," said Harry flatly. "It was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord."**

**After a few moments, Hermione said gently, "But that's impossible, Harry. You mean that you did magic without meaning to; you reacted instinctively."**

"I know that it really happened _now._" Hermione protested when Harry opened his mouth.

**"No," said Harry. "The bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognized. I've never made gold flames appear before."**

**"Often," said Mr. Weasley, "when you're in a pressured situation you can produce magic you never dreamed of. Small children often find, before they're trained –"**

"I'm not a kid!" Harry objected and Tonks read before an argument broke out between Sirius and Mrs. Weasley… _again._

**"It wasn't like that," said Harry through gritted teeth. His scar was burning. He felt angry and frustrated; he hated the idea that they were all imagining him to have power to match Voldemort's.**

**No one said anything. He knew that they did not believe him. Now that he came to think of it, he had never heard of a wand performing magic on its own before.**

**His scar seared with pain, it was all he could do not to moan aloud. Muttering about fresh air, he set down his glass and left the room.**

**As he crossed the yard, the great skeletal thestral looked up – rustled its enormous batlike wings, then resumed its grazing. Harry stopped at the gate into the garden, staring out at its overgrown plants, rubbing his pounding forehead and thinking of Dumbledore.**

Everyone sighed. He's only fourteen… well sixteen in the book. Harry shouldn't be able to see thestrals.

**Dumbledore would have believed him, he knew it. Dumbledore would have known how and why Harry's wand had acted independently, because Dumbledore always had the answers; he had known about wands, had explained to Harry the strange connection that existed between his wand and Voldemort's . . . . But Dumbledore, like Mad-Eye, like Sirius, like his parents, like his poor owl, all were gone where Harry could never talk to them again. He felt a burning in his throat that had nothing to do with firewhisky…**

**And then, out of nowhere, the pain in his scar peaked. As he clutched his forehead and closed his eyes, a voice screamed inside his head.**

**"**_**You told me the problem would be solved by using another's wand!**_**"**

**And into his mind burst the vision of an emaciated old man lying in rags upon a stone floor, screaming, a horrible drawn-out scream, a scream of unendurable agony. . . .**

"What!"

"What's going on?"

"What's happening?"

"He's seeing into You-Know-Who's mind." Future Ron said simply

"_What?"_

"Well," Future Hermione started with a glance at Future Ron, "Harry and You-Know-Who have some sort of mind connection that allowed each other to look into the other's mind. Although, You-Know-Who hasn't looked into Harry's mind since fifth year." Everyone gasped and looked shocked.

"But I've never seen into Voldemort's mind before!" Harry protested and Future Ron coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'corridor'.

**"No! No! I beg you, I beg you. . . ."**

**"You lied to Lord Voldemort, Ollivander!"**

"Ollivander!" Everyone, minus the Future duo, gasped.

"Dear God!" McGonagall breathed, covering her mouth with her hand.

"How long has he been captured for?" Dumbledore asked, looking the calmest out of everyone in the room.

"Since before our sixth year." Future Hermione said, looking grim as she remembered th weak state he was in when they last saw him.

**"I did not. . . . I swear I did not. . . ."**

**"You sought to help Potter, to help him escape me!"**

**"I swear I did not. . . . I believed a different wand would work. . . ."**

**"Explain, then, what happened. Lucius's wand is destroyed!"**

**"I cannot understand. . . . The connection . . . exists only... between your two wands. . . ."**

**"**_**Lies!**_**"**

**"Please . . . I beg you. . . ."**

**And Harry saw the white hand raise its wand and felt Voldemort's surge of vicious anger, saw the frail old main on the floor writhe in agony –**

Future Hermione and Ron flinched slightly at the mention of the torture curse.

**"Harry?"**

"Thank God it's over." Ginny breathed and the room agreed with her.

**It was over as quickly as it had come: Harry stood shaking in the darkness, clutching the gate into the garden, his heart racing, his scar still tingling. It was several moments before he realized that Ron and Hermione were at his side.**

**"Harry, come back in the house," Hermione whispered, "You aren't still thinking of leaving?"**

**"Yeah, you've got to stay, mate," said Ron, thumping Harry on the back.**

**"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, close enough now to look into Harry's face. "You look awful!"**

**"Well," said Harry shakily, "I probably look better than Ollivander. . . ."**

**When he had finished telling them what he had seen, Ron looked appalled, but Hermione downright terrified.**

"Of course I was terrified!" Hermione said with wide eyes

"Never said you weren't" Ron said and she glared at him.

**"But it was supposed to have stopped! Your scar – it wasn't supposed to do this anymore! You mustn't let that connection open up again – Dumbledore wanted you to close your mind!"**

**When he did not reply, she gripped his arm.**

**"Harry, he's taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the Wizarding world! Don't let him inside your head too!"**

"That's it." Tonks said quietly, putting the book down.

"I think that's enough for one day." Dumbledore said as they all absorbed the information they had obtained from the book.

"Professor Dumbledore, can we have a word, please?" Future Hermione asked Dumbledore

"Of course, Ms. Granger." Dumbledore replied and the future duo and Dumbledore walked into the sitting room with everyone else staring after them as the door shut.

**A/N: Cliffhangers! Hope you liked it! Review or PM me with suggestions! Critiques are welcomed! Why do you think that Hermione and Ron want to talk to Dumbledore?**


	9. Authors Note 2 PLEASE READ!

Hello readers!

Sorry, this is not an update but PLEASE READ! I'm extremely sorry that I haven't updated either of my stories for a while but I actually have a reason why. I have a few major tests coming up in the next few weeks that I have been studying for and it's that time of the year where my teachers load us up with homework to "prepare" us for finals. I've been working on my stories when I have time but that is very limited. I am going to start updating more towards the end of June and then throughout the summer. I had a goal when I first started my Reading the DH story that I was going to finish it by the end of the school year but that didn't happen :( . Once again, I am soooo sorry! My stories aren't going to be abandoned for long!

WizardDragon

P.S. Would you guys rather have a chapter without them reading the books or one giant chapter for my RtDH story? Review or PM me with your answer! I reply to most, if not all of my PM's!


	10. The Ghoul in Pajamas

**A/N: I'm baaaaaccckkk! Thanks for your patience! I've been having a few stressful months and I've been working on this chapter whenever I had time. Hopefully I can get a few more chapters up before the end of summer but these types of stories are hard to write with little time. I changed the beginning from what I originally planned for it so it's shorter than planned. READ THE AUTHOR"S NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter no matter how much I want to. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Studios. **

**I present to you the long awaited next chapter to Reading the Deathly Hallows with Ron and Hermione! *Cheers***

**The Ghoul in Pajamas **

"May I inquire what this is about Mr. Weasley and Miss. Granger?" Dumbledore asked as soon as the door shut, his eyes twinkling as they saw the two couches pulled slightly together. Future Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, unsure of where to begin.

"We need to go to Hogwarts." Future Hermione said bluntly

"Why, Miss. Granger?" Dumbledore asked, only looking slightly surprised.

"We need to get the Sword of Gryffindor, I'm sure you already know why we need it. We also need to go to the Chamber of Secrets." Here, Future Ron looked surprised.

"Why do we need to go to the Chamber?"

"It'll be better to have spares, so what happened last time doesn't happen again." He realized that his girlfriend was talking about that bloody goblin taking the sword.

"We'll need a disguise too," Future Ron said and at Hermione's and Dumbledore's questioning glance, he explained, "We look older than we did in fifth year. If we run into a professor, they're going to start asking questions."

"Ron, that's brilliant!" Hermione said, shocked that she didn't think of that.

"I'm sure that I could arrange something." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling brighter, unsettling Ron and Hermione a little bit.

Ten minutes later, the three of them were walking back into the kitchen with plans to meet Dumbledore later that night outside the Hogwarts gates. None of them noticed Kreacher creep out of the closet, mumbling about what he had heard over the past few days and how mudbloods and blood traitors were disgracing the noble house of Black.

The three of them walked into the kitchen and were surprised to see that the Weasley's had made up with Percy and were all sitting around the table with Mrs. Weasley giving them instructions for what they'll be cleaning.

"…And tomorrow we'll clean the drawing room."

"Mum," Ron groaned, "Why can't we just read more of the book?"

"Because, Ronald, some people have jobs that need to be attended to! Oh!" she said, turning towards the future duo, "Can you two fetch me your clothes that you were wearing yesterday? They were _filthy _and need a good washing." Future Ron and Hermione nodded quickly and went back into the room they just left, passing Kreacher on the way.

"I must go, thanks for the lunch earlier, Molly." Dumbledore said and Mrs. Weasley smiled.

"Anytime Albus." And with a nod to the children and Sirius, Albus Dumbledore strided into the hallway and disapparited as soon as they heard the front door shut.

*In the living room*

Future Hermione was digging through her beaded bag, pulling out the grimy clothing they had worn when they arrived. As she pulled out Ron's hoodie, she noticed the beginning of a bruise starting to form on his left cheek. Hermione brushed her fingers against it, making Future Ron look up at her quickly.

"What happened?"

"Crabbe." He said, as if it explained everything, and went further into detail at Hermione's confused stare, "A book fell when he tried to bring down the pile of rubbish on me in the Room of Requirement and it hit me on my face."

Hermione winced and pulled out her pink hoodie.

"I think that's all of it. Can you believe we just came from- "She was cut off by Ron's lips pressing against hers, his hand cupping her cheek. Hermione dropped her beaded bag and the clothes to tangle her hands in his ginger hair. His hands slowly moved to her back, pulling her closer as they both got lost in the feel of each other's lips. Hermione moaned quietly and her mouth opened to allow Ron's tongue to sneak in as he deepened the kiss. Slowly, minutes later, they broke apart gasping for air.

"I've been waiting to do that all day." Ron said, as they both chuckled, staring into the opposite's eyes.

"We-we better get back. They'll be wondering what happened." Hermione finally said.

*In the kitchen*

"Mum, do we _really_ have to clean some more?" Fred groaned

"Yeah, I shouldn't have to clean. I'm _Holy_." George groaned.

"You'll have a lot more holes if you don't get upstairs, young man." Mrs. Weasley said sternly as all the children were slowly getting up from the table.

"Here you go, mum." Future Ron said as he and Future Hermione handed Mrs. Weasley their soot and grime covered clothes, which she looked over in her hands, her nose wrinkling at the strong sent of smoke and murky lake water.

"Good Merlin," She gaped, "Just _what _were you two _doing_?" All the kids at the table slowly sat back down, their eyes never leaving the three. Sirius' eyes were darting between the future two, as if they were trying to connect-the-dots.

"Nothing." The future couple said in unison, glancing at each other quickly. Mrs. Weasley looked at them as she turned to leave and they knew that she was going to be persistent trying to find out what they've done. Harry looked at Sirius and Lupin.

"So, what is Voldemort up to? You were just about to tell me when Ron and Hermione arrived from the future." He asked. Lupin hesitated

"I think we should wait for the rest of the Order to arrive before we answer your questions."

"You know," Fred started

"Those two" George motioned to Future Ron and Hermione, "might know what the Order's up too. I mean, you guys always find out _everything_!" The Future Ron shrugged as everyone in the room looked at them.

"It's true. Whatever you don't tell them, we could."

"And what _exactly_ makes you think that you know what the Order is doing, Ronald Weasley?" Mrs. Weasley demanded from the doorway.

"You know," Bill began, turning to his youngest brother, "That is a really good question."

"Well," Future Hermione glanced at Harry before continuing, "There is _something_ that you're protecting that Dumbledore doesn't think that Harry should know about and it's inside a _mysterious _place." The Order members in the room looked shocked to say the least while the non-members exploded in questions.

"What's that something that you're protecting?"

"Why are you protecting it? Is it important?"

"Why doesn't Dumbledore think I should know about it?"

"What the ruddy hell do you mean by 'mysterious place'?"

Mad-Eye pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Future Duo and the room went dead quiet in a matter of seconds.

"How did you two know that?" He growled as the two pulled out their wands.

"We figured it out and ended up finding that bloody thing at the end of fifth year!" Future Ron said hurriedly.

"Alastor." Lupin said pointedly, "lower your wand."

"Fine." Mad-Eye grumbled, stowing his wand in his jacket while Future Ron and Hermione put their wands away and sat down at the table. "This conversation isn't over." He said to them.

*Four Hours Later*

Mr. Weasley, Bill, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Kingsley, and Tonks walked into the kitchen to see only Sirius, Remus, Percy, Mad-Eye, Future Ron, and Future Hermione sitting at the table.

"Where is everybody?" Mr. Weasley asked as they joined them.

"Cleaning," Remus said and added at the glances that were shot at the Future duo, "Molly told those two that they didn't need to help and that they should get some food because they are 'too skinny' for her liking."

The adults looked at Future Ron and Hermione who were huddled around a piece of parchment at the other end of the table.

"What are they doing?" Tonks whispered

"I don't know but it looks like they're planning something." Lupin answered, glancing from Tonks to the parchment. Future Ron glanced down the table and whispered something to his girlfriend, who took the parchment and put it in her beaded bag. Mr. Weasley looked at Bill.

"Go get everybody and we can read another chapter before it gets too late." Bill left the room and a few minutes later, he came downstairs with a bunch of teenagers grumbling about cleaning.

"Who's reading next?" Sirius asked

"I will" Percy said

"Wait," Harry spoke up, "Where's Dumbledore?"

"He said to read this chapter without him as he has important to attend to, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said as Percy opened the book.

"**The Ghoul In Pajamas**" He read

**The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed;**

"I would be surprised if it didn't." Mr. Weasley said and everyone nodded grimly.

**Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Harry felt that nothing but action would assuage his feelings of guilt and grief and that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.**

"What are Horcruxes?" Harry asked **(A/N: Sorry if this is repetitive. I can't remember if they've had this conversation before.)**

"I don't know." Hermione said looking extremely frustrated as everyone stared at Future Ron and Hermione.

"If I'm correct," Future Hermione began, "We are going to talk about Horcruxes in this chapter."

**"Well, you can't do anything about the"- Ron mouthed the word Horcruxes -"till you're seventeen. You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"**

**"No," Harry admitted.**

"Oh that's great. We're going to be looking for Horcruxes, which we don't even know what they are, and we don't even know where they are!" Harry grumbled

"Well where do you expect them to be? Hogwarts?" Ron said sarcastically, "It can't be anywhere easy if we're skipping seventh year to look for them." Everybody agreed and missed the shocked look that Future Ron and Hermione shared.

"We have to keep a close eye on what you say when you joke." Future Hermione mumbled to Future Ron, "Maybe you are part seer." Future Ron snorted.

"What?" He said defensively at the looks he was getting. Percy shook his head and continued to read

**"I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. "She said she was saving it for when you got here."**

**They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath.**

**"The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can -"**

**"Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."**

Bill blushed at the reminder of his future wedding and Mrs. Weasley had a dreamy look in her eye.

"Remember Molly," Mr. Weasley whispered to his wife, "You still have nearly three years to plan it." Mrs. Weasley looked slightly flushed.

**Harry understood "they" to mean Fleur and Mrs. Weasley.**

The members of the room laughed, except for Mrs. Weasley of course. Even McGonagall cracked a smile.

**"It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous.**

"Oh no!"

"Harry, don't look mutinous!"

"You need to at least look angry-"

"Or disobedient!"

"Or even pis-"

"George Weasley! Don't you _dare_ finish that sentence!"

"Ok mum." Fred and George grumbled

**"Don't they realize how important -?"**

**"'Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."**

**Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry.**

**"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined."**

"Of course I am!" Mrs. Weasley huffed, "I'm not just going to let Ron and his friends run off and skip their NEWT year for no good reason."

"Mum," Ron said, "If Harry asks us not to tell anyone, we won't tell." Hermione and the Future Duo nodded in agreement and everyone in the room, besides the trio, were in awe of the loyalty that the three show each other.

**Ron's prediction came true within hours.**

"Of course it did." Ginny sighed

**Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack. **

"Don't fall for the lone sock trick, Harry." Tonks advised.

"It's one of Mum's favorite tricks to get us alone." Fred said, groaning at the number of times him and George had gotten in trouble because of it.

**Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.**

**"Ron and Hermione seem to think that the three of you are dropping out of Hogwarts," she began in a light, casual tone.**

"It starts out casual but ends up in a demanding tone." Bill said

**"Oh," said Harry. "Well, yeah. We are."**

**The mangle turned of its own accord in a corner, wringing out what looked like one of Mr. Weasley's vests.**

**"May I ask why you are abandoning your education?" said Mrs. Weasley.**

**"Well, Dumbledore left me... stuff to do," mumbled Harry. "Ron and Hermione know about it, and they want to come too."**

**"What sort of 'stuff'?"**

**"I'm sorry, I can't -"**

**"Well, frankly, I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I'm sure Mr. And Mrs. Granger would agree!" said Mrs. Weasley. Harry had been afraid of the "concerned parent" attack. **

Everyone laughed, except for a few adults, who looked very unhappy at the trio (Mrs. Weasley, McGonagall, the usual)

"I'm sure they would! We do have a right to know what Dumbledore is having you do! The Order can help!" The laughter in the room disappeared with Mrs. Weasley's outburst.

"Mum," Future Ron started, "Trust me, it's safer with fewer people knowing about our mission. That way, there's less of a chance of You-Know-Who finding out about it."

"Wait." Percy said, looking at the Future Duo, "Is this mission why you three-"

"Yes." Future Hermione said pointedly and his brother looked at him with a stare that clearly said _Shut up!_ Percy glanced at the curious looks of the rooms occupants and decided that it would be wise to start reading again.

**He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did so that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny's. This did not help.**

Everyone laughed.

"They are?" Ginny asked, turning red

"And how do you know that, Harry?" Sirius said, smirking at his godson's slight blush.

**"Dumbledore didn't want anyone else to know, Mrs. Weasley. I'm sorry. Ron and Hermione don't have to come, it's their choice -"**

"Of course we would come! Why wouldn't we?" Hermione exclaimed

"Well-"

"You don't have to do everything all by yourself, mate." Ron said and Harry smiled slightly but still felt a pang of guilt.

**"I don't see that you have to go either!" she snapped, dropping all pretense now. "You're barely of age, any of you! It's utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you -"**

**"I didn't misunderstand," said Harry flatly. "It's got to be me."**

"Why is it, when anything happens, it always involves you three?" McGonagall asked exasperated.

"Well, to tell you the truth professor," Future Ron said with a grim smile, "I've been asking myself the same question for the past seven years." Everyone chuckled, and then the adults realized he was serious.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kingsley asked

"I've noticed the same thing." Hermione said with a glance between both Ron's and Harry, "We've been involved with every major thing that's happened since first year, although I'm not sure about fifth and sixth year."

"What happened in first year?" Bill asked with raised eyebrows

"Er-" Ron said with a glance at his parents.

"It's a long story." Harry said, not wanting to deal with Mrs. Weasley's anger again.

"Wait, does this involve the giant chess set you beat in first year?" Percy asked.

"Yes?" Ron answered hesitantly while rubbing his head where the statue had struck him.

"Why don't we talk about this later so we can get the full story?" Kingsley suggested and everyone agreed, except the members of the trio, future and present, who paled slightly.

"Yes, it will be a _sirius_ conversation." Lupin groaned at his friends old pun.

**He handed her back the single sock he was supposed to be identifying, which was patterned with golden bulrushes.**

**"And that's not mine. I don't support Puddlemere United."**

"Isn't that Oliver's team?" George asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Fred said

**"Oh, of course not," said Mrs. Weasley with a sudden and rather unnerving return to her casual tone. "I should have realized. Well, Harry, while we've still got you here, you won't mind helping with the preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding, will you? There's still so much to do."**

"Don't fall for it Harry!" Tonks shouted and Lupin rubbed his ears while grumbling slightly about his werewolf heightened hearing.

**"No - I - of course not," said Harry, disconcerted by this sudden change of subject.**

**"Sweet of you," she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.**

**From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept Harry, Ron and Hermione so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. **

"Ugh." Hermione groaned at the thought of barely being able to think.

**The kindest explanation of this behavior would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of color-matching favors, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canap-s however, Harry started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seemed to keep him, Ron, and Hermione away from one another; he had not had a chance to speak to the two of them alone since the first night, when he had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivander.**

"You should let them plan, Mum." Bill said.

"They need to plan and keeping them apart will only make them more unprepared." Ginny said with a groan

"It would've been nice to actually have time to talk to each other before having to leave. I think we would've had more planned." Future Hermione sighed.

"But I still don't see why you don't get the Order's help." Mrs. Weasley said stubbornly.

**"I think Mum thinks that if she can stop the three of you getting together and planning, she'll be able to delay you leaving," Ginny told Harry in an undertone, as they laid the table for dinner on the third night of his stay.**

**"And then what does she think's going to happen?" Harry muttered. "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she's holding us here making vol-au-vents?"**

"Wrong thing to say in front of Ginny." Bill said.

"How do Horcruxes relate to Voldemort?" Ginny asked

**He had spoken without thinking, and saw Ginny's face whiten.**

**"So it's true?" she said. "That's what you're trying to do?"**

**"I - not - I was joking," said Harry evasively.**

"Yeah right." Sirius snorted with a slight grim look on his face.

**They stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in Ginny's expression. Suddenly Harry became aware that this was the first time that he had been alone with her since those stolen hours in secluded corners of the Hogwarts grounds. He was sure she was remembering them too.**

Ginny and Harry both turned red.

"Mate, that's my sister!" Ron exclaimed as all of the Weasley brothers looked shocked. Harry was confused. He liked Cho, didn't he?

**Both of them jumped as the door opened, and Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, and Bill walked in.**

**They were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow had replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters.**

**Mr. Weasley had explained that after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place's location had become a Secret-Keeper in turn.**

**"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."**

**"But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?" asked Harry.**

**"Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they'll be strong enough both to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can't be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as headquarters now that its protection has become so shaky."**

Future Ron and Hermione shuddered slightly at the reminder of the Dumbledore dust cloud.

**The kitchen was so crowded that evening it was difficult to maneuver knives and forks. Harry found himself crammed beside Ginny; the unsaid things that had just passed between them made him wish they had been separated by a few more people. He was trying so hard to avoid brushing her arm he could barely cut his chicken.**

Everybody chuckled at that.

"Bad luck there." Tonks grinned

**"No news about Mad-Eye?" Harry asked Bill.**

**"Nothing," replied Bill.**

**They had not been able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.**

**"The Daily Prophet hasn't said a word about him dying or about finding the body," Bill went on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."**

"It keeps a lot quiet now." Mr. Weasley sighed

"Is the Prophet this bad in the future?" Hermione asked

"Worse." Future Ron, Hermione, and Percy said and all the present members looked shocked. _How could it get worse than it is now?_

**"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?" Harry called across the table to Mr. Weasley, who shook his head.**

**"Because they know I had no choice or because they don't want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?"**

**"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."**

**"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: I must not tell lies.**

"Where did Harry get those scars?" Mrs. Weasley shouted, shocked beyond belief. _Could this boy get any more scars? He already has enough!_

"Sounds like a blood quill." Bill said darkly, "We use them at Gringotts for signing official documents like money transfers and such. They're only supposed to be used once, not repeatedly enough so they leave _scars_!"

"It was for detention with Umbridge. Harry kept talking back at her in class so she kept giving him detention." Future Hermione said with an angry glint in her eyes.

"Did you two ever-" Lupin left the question open as everyone knew what he was asking.

"Once." Future Ron said bleakly and his family looked shocked and McGonagall looked furious.

"Why?" Bill demanded

"Someone told Umbridge about the DA meetings and where we were having them. Then she and some Slytherins interrupted a meeting and everyone ran for it. Thy caught a few of us and then they found the list that everyone signed up on. It had all of our names on it so we all got detention." Future Hermione said darkly as the room absorbed the information.

**"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asked Ron angrily.**

Some glares were shot at Percy at the mention of the Ministry.

**"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mr. Weasley replied, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumors going around; I for one don't believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day; I just hope he's working on a plan."**

Everyone grimaced at the thought of what really happened to Professor Burbage.

**There was a pause in which Mrs. Weasley magicked the empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.**

**"We must decide 'ow you will be disguised, 'Arry," said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. "For ze wedding," she added, when he looked confused. "Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey 'ave 'ad champagne."**

"Your French accent is horrible, Perce." Fred said with a smirk

"Shut up." Percy grumbled.

**From this, Harry gathered that she still suspected Hagrid.**

Harry glared slightly at the book at the mention of Fleur suspecting his friend.

**"Yes, good point," said Mrs. Weasley from the top of the table where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment. "Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?"**

"_Why_ would I have to clean my room?" Ron groaned and Percy read before his Mum could reply.

**"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!"**

**"We are holding your brother's wedding here in a few days' time, young man -"**

**"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left -"**

There was a stunned silence.

"You," George said to both Ron's, "Are a brave man." That did it. Everyone in the room burst out laughing. Everyone, that is, except for Mrs. Weasley.

"Brilliant!" Tonks choked out while leaning on Lupin for support. Sirius was howling with laughter and was doubled over against the table. Harry was laughing at his best friend's way with words. Hermione was plain out laughing at her friend's brave stupidity.

"Ronald Weasley, you do not talk to your mother that way." Mrs. Weasley hissed and Percy decided it would be a good time to start reading.

**"Don't talk to your mother like that," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "And do as you're told."**

**Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart.**

**"I can help, some of it's my mess." Harry told Ron, but Mrs. Weasley cut across him.**

"Won't work."

**"No, Harry, dear, I'd much rather you helped Arthur much out the chickens, and Hermione, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour; you know they're arriving at eleven tomorrow morning."**

"Told you." Harry looked at Hermione exasperated

"Sorry." She grumbled.

**But as it turned out, there was very little to do for the chickens. "There's no need to, er, mention it to Molly," Mr. Weasley told Harry, blocking his access to the coop, "but, er, Ted Tonks sent me most of what was left of Sirius's bike and, er, I'm hiding - that's to say, keeping - it in here. Fantastic stuff: There's an exhaust gaskin, as I believe it's called, the most magnificent battery, and it'll be a great opportunity to find out how brakes work. I'm going to try and put it all back together again when Molly's not - I mean, when I've got time."**

"Smooth" Sirius snickered as Mrs. Weasley glared at her husband, who turned red.

**When they returned to the house, Mrs. Weasley was nowhere to be seen, so Harry slipped upstairs to Ron's attic bedroom.**

**"I'm doing it, I'm doing -! Oh, it's you," said Ron in relief, as Harry entered the room. Ron lay back down on the bed, which he had evidently just vacated.**

"Ron." Both Hermione's groaned

"What's that supposed to mean?" They both said defensively

"Good to know you don't change." Ginny snorted

**The room was just as messy as it had been all week; the only chance was that Hermione was now sitting in the far corner, her fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet, sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.**

Future Hermione glanced sadly at the book at the mention of her cat that she hasn't seen in months.

**"Hi, Harry," she said, as he sat down on his camp bed.**

**"And how did you manage to get away?"**

**"Oh, Ron's mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday," said Hermione. She threw Numerology and Grammatica onto one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts onto the other.**

**"We were just talking about Mad-Eye," Ron told Harry. "I reckon he might have survived."**

"Ron." Bill sighed

"I know. I know." Future Ron sighed, "It was wishful thinking."

**"But Bill saw him hit by the Killing Curse," said Harry.**

**"Yeah, but Bill was under attack too," said Ron. "How can he be sure what he saw?"**

**"Even if the Killing Curse missed, Mad-Eye still fell about a thousand feet," said Hermione, now weight Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland in her hand.**

**"He could have used a Shield Charm -"**

**"Fleur said his wand was blasted out of his hand," said Harry.**

**"Well, all right, if you want him to be dead," said Ron grumpily, punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape.**

Future Hermione sighed as her past self-glared at Ron.

**"Of course we don't want him to be dead!" said Hermione, looking shocked. "It's dreadful that he's dead! But we're being realistic!"**

**For the first time, Harry imagined Mad-Eye's body, broken as Dumbledore's had been, yet with that one eye still whizzing in its socket. He felt a stab of revulsion mixed with a bizarre desire to laugh.**

"Your mind is weird." Tonks said to Harry and everyone nodded.

"Well it's not like I wanted my thoughts read out!" Harry growled, a rush of anger flowing through him.

"No one said you did." Hermione said gently, looking at her friend with concern.

**"The Death Eaters probably tidied up after themselves, that's why no one's found him," said Ron wisely.**

**"Yeah," said Harry. "Like Barty Crouch, turned into a bone and buried in Hagrid's front garden. They probably transfigured Moody and stuffed him -"**

"What!" Mrs. Weasley yelped, looking slightly green, "When was this?"

"Last year." Harry said, not wanting to go into any details.

**"Don't!" squealed Hermione. Startled, Harry looked over just in time to see her burst into tears over her copy of Spellman's Syllabary.**

**"Oh no," said Harry, struggling to get up from the old camp bed. "Hermione, I wasn't trying to upset - "**

**But with a great creaking of rusty bedsprings, Ron bounded off the bed and got there first. **

Ron started to turn red as his brothers began to smirk at each other all think the same thing: Ron got _the _book.

**One arm around Hermione, he fished in his jeans pocket and withdrew a revolting-looking handkerchief that he had used to clean out the oven earlier. Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, "Tergeo."**

**The wand siphoned off most of the grease. Looking rather pleased with himself, Ron handed the slightly smoking handkerchief to Hermione.**

"Smooth." Ginny smirked, surprised at her brother's actions.

**"Oh... thanks, Ron... I'm sorry..." She blew her nose and hiccupped. "It's just so awf-ful, isn't it? R-right after Dumbledore... I j-just n-never imagined Mad-Eye dying, somehow, he seemed so tough!"**

**"Yeah, I know," said Ron, giving her a squeeze. "But you know what he'd say to us if he was here?"**

**"'C-constant vigilance,'" said Hermione, mopping her eyes.**

**"That's right," said Ron, nodding. "He'd tell us to learn from what happened to him. And what I've learned is not to trust that cowardly little squit, Mundungus."**

Everyone chuckled at Ron's comic relief, although most would've laughed but were too shocked at Ron's newfound ability at cheering people up. Hermione's jaw almost dropped when Percy read out Ron's words to her. Future Hermione gripped her boyfriend's hand tightly as a silent sign of thanks.

**Hermione gave a shaky laugh and leaned forward to pick up two more books. A second later, Ron had snatched his arm back from around her shoulders; she had dropped The Monster of Monsters on his foot. The book had broken free from its restraining belt and snapped viciously at Ron's ankle.**

"Sorry." Both Hermione's muttered as all the students who had the unfortunate pleasure of taking Hagrid's class that year winced.

"Wha-" Sirius began to ask when Future Hermione interrupted.

"I think I have it here. Just wait a minute." She said as she opened her bag, confusing the rest of the room, except for McGonagall who smiled at her student's brilliance.

"Don't tell me you've had that book in that bloody beaded bag of yours." Future Ron groaned as Future Hermione's arm nearly disappeared inside the bag.

"What the-" Sirius exclaimed as Hermione pulled her arm out and sighed.

"I must've left it behind." She said frowning slightly.

"The title basically explains it, Sirius." Lupin said, remembering the books from his year teaching.

**"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as Harry wrenched the book from Ron's leg and retied it shit.**

**"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked, limping back to his bed.**

**"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione, "When we're looking for the Horcruxes."**

**"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library."**

**"Ha ha," said Hermione, looking down at Spellman's Syllabary. "I wonder... will we need to translate runes? It's possible... I think we'd better take it, to be safe."**

**She dropped the syllabary onto the larger of the two piles and picked up Hogwarts, A History.**

"Who actually reads that book?" Bill asked

"Hermione." "Remus." "Percy."

**"Listen," said Harry.**

"Here he goes." Hermione groaned and Ron rolled his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Tonks asked

"He's going to say it's too dangerous, we might be killed and try to convince us not to go with him." Ron said and Harry glared at them. Everyone looked surprised at how well Ron and Hermione knew their friend.

**He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance.**

**"I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.**

Everybody winced at the reminder of Dumbledore's death.

**"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.**

**"As we knew he would," she sighed, turning back to the books. "You know, I think I will take Hogwarts, A History. Even if we're not going back there, I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't have it with -"**

**"Listen!" said Harry again.**

**"No, Harry, you listen," said Hermione. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago - years, really."**

**"But -"**

**"Shut up," Ron advised him.**

"Good advice." McGonagall said, causing some to shoot her surprised looks

**"- are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.**

**"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming Travels with Trolls onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose. **

Half the room's occupants jaws dropped and Mrs. Weasley looked furious.

"Good job. You never know when you'll have to leave." Mad-Eye barked and Future Hermione looked slightly guilty, but still had a small grin on her face.

"Constant Vigilance!" Tonks barked in an uncanny impression of Mad-Eye, who glared at her.

**I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me - or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you."**

The room was shocked that Hermione would have to go that far to protect her parents. _Just how bad is the Second War?_

**"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't - well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."**

Hermione had tears in her eyes when she heard that.

"Hermione…" Mrs. Weasley trailed off when she couldn't think of what to say to comfort the poor girl. Future Ron had his arm around Hermione, who leaned her head on his shoulder.

**Hermione's eyes were swimming with tears again. Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around her once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact. Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.**

Ron's siblings gaped at him in shock. Their tactless brother had actually shown some tact. Ginny looked from her blushing brother to her future brother… who had Future Hermione leaning against him in a way that a friend wouldn't. She nudged Fred and nodded to them and his jaw dropped in astonishment as he nudged his twin.

**"I - Hermione, I'm sorry - I didn't -"**

**"Didn't realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do. Ron, show Harry what you've done."**

**"Nah, he's just eaten," said Ron.**

"What did you do?" Mrs. Weasley groaned

"Wait. _Eaten?_" Sirius asked and Ron shrugged, having no idea.

**"Go on, he needs to know!"**

**"Oh, all right. Harry, come here."**

**For the second time Ron withdrew his arm from around Hermione and stumped over to the door.**

"Your attic?" Hermione asked and Ron nodded

**"C'mon."**

**"Why?" Harry asked, following Ron out of the room onto the tiny landing.**

**"Descendo," muttered Ron, pointing his wand at the low ceiling. A hatch opened right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet. A horrible, half-sucking, half-moaning sound came out of the square hole, along with an unpleasant smell like open drains.**

"What's up there?" Kingsley asked

"The family ghoul." Mr. Weasley said.

**"That's your ghoul, isn't it?" asked Harry, who had never actually met the creature that sometimes disrupted the nightly silence.**

**"Yeah, it is," said Ron, climbing the ladder. "Come and have a look at him."**

**Harry followed Ron up the few short steps into the tiny attic space. His head and shoulders were in the room before he caught sight of the creature curled up a few feet from him, fast asleep in the gloom with its large mouth wide open.**

**"But it... it looks... do ghouls normally wear pajamas?"**

"That's where the title comes from." McGonagall said

"Why the hell is your ghoul wearing pajamas?" Sirius asked.

"You'll see." Said Future Ron, looking slightly smug at the thought of the plan that kept his family mostly safe while he was on the run.

**"No," said Ron. "Nor have they usually got red hair or that number of pustules."**

**Harry contemplated the thing, slightly revolted. It was human in shape and size, and was wearing what, now that Harry's eyes became used to the darkness, was clearly an old pair of Ron's pajamas. He was also sure that ghouls were generally rather slimy and bald, rather than distinctly hairy and covered in angry purple blisters.**

**"He's me, see?" said Ron.**

"Yes." All of Ron's siblings said and both Ron's gaped at Percy, who actually just made a joke.

**"No," said Harry. "I don't."**

**"I'll explain it back in my room, the smell's getting to me," said Ron. They climbed back down the ladder, which Ron returned to the ceiling, and rejoined Hermione, who was still sorting books.**

"Just how many books do you have?" Ginny asked

"Er-" Both Hermione's said, mentally trying to count and Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"That was a rhetorical question."

**"Once we've left, the ghoul's going to come and live down here in my room," said Ron. "I think he's really looking forward to it - well, it's hard to tell, because all he can do is moan and drool - but he nods a lot when you mention it. Anyway, he's going to be me with spattergroit. Good, eh?"**

"That's actually a very good plan." McGonagall said to the Rons

"They will never know the difference if your family can convince anyone who comes looking that it's you." Lupin said approvingly

"What's spattergroit?" Harry asked

"I think I explained it." Future Ron said while trying to remember the conversation.

**Harry merely looked his confusion.**

**"It is!" said Ron, clearly frustrated that Harry had not grasped the brilliance of the plan. "Look, when we three don't turn up at Hogwarts again, everyone's going to think Hermione and I must be with you, right? Which means the Death Eaters will go straight for our families to see if they've got information on where you are."**

**"But hopefully it'll look like I've gone away with Mum and Dad; a lot of Muggle-borns are talking about going into hiding at the moment," said Hermione.**

"It's sad that most of the muggleborns had to go into hiding." Future Hermione said sadly, thinking of the one's who ended up in Azkaban or worse.

"Most?" Kingsley asked, his eyes widened slightly

"You'll see." Future Ron motioned to the book

**"We can't hide my whole family, it'll look too fishy and they can't all leave their jobs," said Ron.**

"It would be impossible to hide the _whole_ family." Fred said

"Yeah, it would take years just to find them all." George continued

**"So we're going to put out the story that I'm seriously ill with spattergroit, which is why I can't go back to school. If anyone comes calling to investigate, Mum or Dad can show them the ghoul in my bed, covered in pustules. Spattergroit's really contagious, so they're not going to want to go near him. It won't matter that he can't say anything, either, because apparently you can't once the fungus has spread to your uvula."**

"That is a siriusly brilliant plan." Sirius said smirking as everyone groaned.

**"And your mum and dad are in on this plan?" asked Harry.**

**"Dad is. He helped Fred and George transform the ghoul. Mum... well, you've seen what she's like. She won't accept we're going till we're gone."**

Mrs. Weasley sighed sadly. _No she wouldn't_.

**There was silence in the room, broken only by gentle thuds as Hermione continued to throw books onto one pile or the other. Ron sat watching her, and Harry looked from one to the other, unable to say anything. The measure they had taken to protect their families made him realize, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.** **Through the silence came the muffled sounds of Mrs. Weasley shouting from four floors below.**

**"Ginny's probably left a speck of dust on a poxy napkin ring," said Ron. "I dunno why the Delacours have got to come two days before the wedding."**

Percy read faster before his Mum or any of the women in the room could comment.

**"Fleur's sister's a bridesmaid, she needs to be here for the rehearsal, and she's too young to come on her own," said Hermione, as she poured indecisively over Break with a Banshee.**

**"Well, guests aren't going to help Mum's stress levels," said Ron.**

All the Weasley's nodded in agreement

**"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, tossing Defensive Magical Theory into the bin without a second glance and picking up An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Harry, and I understand why, but... well... shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"**

**"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," said Harry, who did not believe that Hermione really understood his desire to return to Godric's Hollow.**

"Well that's great." Ginny groaned, "You don't even know where they are."

**His parents' graves were only part of the attraction:** **He had a strong, though inexplicable, feeling that the place held answers for him.** **Perhaps it was simply because it was there that he had survived Voldemort's Killing Curse;** **now that he was facing the challenge of repeating the feat, Harry was drawn to the place where it had happened, wanting to understand.**

Everyone looked at Harry sadly and Future Hermione sighed, thinking about the Potter's graves and the demolished house, then she shuddered at the thought of the events that occurred right after.

**"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow?" Hermione asked. "He might expect you to go back and visit your parents' graves once you're free to go wherever you like?"**

"He did." Future Hermione said forbiddingly, not elaborating for once.

**This had not occurred to Harry. While he struggled to find a counterargument, Ron spoke up, evidently following his own train of thought.**

**"This R.A.B. person," he said. "You know, the one who stole the real locket?"**

Sirius frowned. _Could R.A.B. be his brother? _He shook his head, _Nah._

**Hermione nodded**

**"He said in his note he was going to destroy it, didn't he?"**

**Harry dragged his rucksack toward him and pulled out the fake Horcrux in which R.A.B.'s note was still folded.**

**"'I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.'" Harry read out.**

**"Well, what if he did finish it off?" said Ron.**

"Well, knowing our luck, he didn't." Hermione sighed and Ron and Harry nodded

**"Or she." Interposed Hermione.**

**"Whichever," said Ron. "it'd be one less for us to do!"**

**"Yes, but we're still going to have to try and trace the real locket, aren't we?" said Hermione, "to find out whether or not it's destroyed."**

**"And once we get hold of it, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" asked Ron.**

**"Well," said Hermione, "I've been researching that."**

**"How?" asked Harry. "I didn't think there were any books on Horcruxes in the library?"**

**"There weren't," said Hermione, who had turned pink. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he - he didn't destroy them."**

"Did she do what I think she did?" George asked his twin, who smirked.

**Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.**

Much like the rest of the room

**"How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"**

**"It - it wasn't stealing!" said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron with a kind of desperation. "They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves. Anyway, if he really didn't want anyone to get at them, I'm sure he would have made it much harder to -"**

"Ms. Granger!" McGonagall said with wide eyed

"Sorry Professor." They both mumbled

**"Get to the point!" said Ron.**

**"Well... it was easy," said Hermione in a small voice. "I just did a Summoning Charm. You know - Accio. And - they zoomed out of Dumbledore's study window right into the girls' dormitory."**

Everyone in the room burst out laughing at the flustered girl and what she did.

"Brilliant!" Ron choked out

**"But when did you do this?" Harry asked, regarding Hermione with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.**

**"Just after his - Dumbledore's - funeral," said Hermione in an even smaller voice. "Right after we agreed we'd leave school and go and look for the Horcruxes. When I went back upstairs to get my things it - it just occurred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be... and I was alone in there... so I tried... and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I - I packed them."**

"That was bloody brilliant." Future Ron muttered to Future Hermione

**She swallowed and then said imploringly, "I can't believe Dumbledore would have been angry, it's not as though we're going to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?"**

**"Can you hear us complaining?" said Ron. "Where are these books anyway?"**

**Hermione rummaged for a moment and then extracted from the pile a large volume, bound in faded black leather. She looked a little nauseated and held it as gingerly as if it were something recently dead.**

**"This is the one that gives explicit instructions on how to make a Horcrux. Secrets of the Darkest Art - it's a horrible book, really awful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library... if he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here."**

**"Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if he'd already read that?" asked Ron.**

"Who's Slughorn?" Harry asked.

"So they got old Sluggy to come out of retirement?" Sirius smirked

"Seems like it." McGonagall sighed

"Who's Slughorn?" Harry demanded again

"He's the old Potions teacher." Mr. Weasley said, "He was the teacher before Snape. I think he retired at the end of the First War."

**"He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven," said Harry.**

"Split your soul?" Hermione asked faintly, "Is what a Horcrux is?"

"A Horcrux is when you split your soul and put the piece in an object, like the locket." Future Hermione said like she was reciting a page in a textbook as she looked at the faces in the room looking more and more disgusted and disturbed with every word she spoke.

**"Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Horcrux by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think you're right, Hermione, that could easily have been where he got the information."**

**"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that's just by making one Horcrux!"**

"So You-Know-Who is unstable?" Fred said with his lips twitching, threatening to break into a grin.

"Of course, Gred. How did you not know?" George exclaimed in mock astonishment

"Don't joke about it!" Mrs. Weasley hissed at the twins.

**Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."**

**"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.**

**"Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."**

**"Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.**

**"Remorse," said Hermione.**

"That's not going to happen anytime soon." Nearly everyone in the room muttered.

**"You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"**

**"No," said Ron, before Harry could answer. "So does it say how to destroy Horcruxes in that book?"**

**"Yes," said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, "because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that I've read, what Harry did to Riddle's diary was one of the few really foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux."**

**"What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?" asked Harry.**

Future Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, thinking about what they were going to do that night and about the battle they just left. Ginny paled at the mention of the diary that destroyed her first year.

"Where did you get a basilisk fang?" Sirius and Lupin asked with wide eyes.

"Er- Later?" Harry asked, hoping that they would forget to talk about it.

"The d-diary was a piece of You-Know-Who's soul?" Ginny looked like she saw a ghost when Future Ron and Hermione nodded.

**"Oh well, lucky we've got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then," said Ron. "I was wondering what we were going to do with them."**

There were a few faint chuckles.

**"It doesn't have to be a basilisk fang," said Hermione patiently. "It has to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and it's incredibly rare -"**

**"- phoenix tears," said Harry, nodding.**

"I don't even want to know how you know that." Sirius sighed.

**"Exactly," said Hermione. "Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."**

**"But even if we wreck the thing it lives in," said Ron, "why can't the bit of soul in it just go and live in something else?"**

**"Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being."**

"It'll explain." Future Hermione sighed at the questioning glances

**Seeing that Harry and Ron looked thoroughly confused, Hermione hurried on. "Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldn't damage your soul at all."**

"And that would be a real comfort to him." Sirius said sarcastically, missing Future Ron and Hermione's startled looks

**"Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," said Ron. Harry laughed.**

As did everyone in the room at the surprised looks on both Ron's and Sirius' faces.

**"It should be, actually! But my point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched," said Hermione. "But it's the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can't exist without it."**

**"That diary sort of died when I stabbed it," said Harry, remembering ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the screams of the piece of Voldemort's soul as it vanished.**

**"And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul trapped in it could no longer exist. Ginny tried to get rid of the diary before you did, flushing it away, but obviously it came back good as new."**

**"Hang on," said Ron, frowning. "The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasn't it? How does that work, then?"**

"The diary _possessed___you?" Percy said disturbed as Ginny flinched and nodded with her head down, hidden behind a curtain of red hair.

**"While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don't mean holding it for too long, it's nothing to do with touching it," she added before Ron could speak. "I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You're in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux."**

Ginny looked like a small girl as Ron, her only brother who knew the full story behind the Diary, put an arm around her shoulder.

**"I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?" said Harry. "Why didn't I ask him? I never really..."**

**His voice trailed away: He was thinking of all the things he should have asked Dumbledore, and of how, since the headmaster had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities when Dumbledore had been alive, to find out more... to find out everything...**

Harry flinched at his thoughts and Hermione was mentally making a list of things to ask the headmaster next time she saw him.

**The silence was shattered as the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Hermione shrieked and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art; Crookshanks streaked under the bed, hissing indignantly; Ron jumped off the bed, skidded on a discarded Chocolate Frog wrapper, and smacked his head on the opposite wall; and Harry instinctively dived for his wand before realizing that he was looking up at Mrs. Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.**

"Oh no." The room groaned

"Constant Vigilance!" Mad-Eye barked at the surprised reactions of the book trio.

**"I'm so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm sure you all need your rest... but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help."**

"Mum." Ron sighed, glancing apologetically at Harry and Hermione.

**"Oh yes," said Hermione, looking terrified as she leapt to her feet, sending books flying in every direction. "we will... we're sorry..."**

"There's nothing to be sorry about." Lupin said to the Hermione's and then he glanced at the stubborn face of Mrs. Weasley and sighed.

**With an anguished look at Harry and Ron, Hermione hurried out of the room after Mrs. Weasley.**

**"it's like being a house-elf," complained Ron in an undertone, still massaging his head as he and Harry followed. "Except without the job satisfaction. The sooner this wedding's over, the happier, I'll be."**

Both Hermione's glared at the Ron's, who had the decency to look slightly abashed as the room laughed at the expressions on their faces and the truthfulness of Ron's statement. Future Ron and Hermione shared a small glance, both thinking the same thing: _We weren't happier after the wedding was over, we were on the run._ Only Lupin and Mad-Eye noticed their less than happy expressions.

**"Yeah," said Harry, "then we'll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes... It'll be like a holiday, won't it?"**

"Not exactly…" Future Hermione trailed off, thinking of their miserable months in a tent with little food.

**Ron started to laugh, but at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs. Weasley's room, stopped quite abruptly.**

"Anyone would." Kingsley grinned.

**The Delacours arrived the following morning at eleven o' clock. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were feeling quite resentful toward Fleur's family by this time; and it was with ill grace that Ron stumped back upstairs to put on matching socks, and Harry attempted to flatten his hair. **

"Why does it matter if I'm wearing matching socks?" The Ron's grumbled and most people in the room nodded in agreement. _Mrs. Weasley was getting ridiculous!_

"Trying to flatten you hair is useless." Sirius grinned

"James called it the Potter curse." Harry stared at Lupin, eager to learn more about his parents and he leaned forward slightly.

"That and marrying redheads." Sirius muttered to Tonks, and she coughed to cover up her laugh.

**Once they had all been deemed smart enough, they trooped out into the sunny backyard to await the visitors.**

**Harry had never seen the place looking so tidy. The rusty cauldrons and old Wellington boots that usually littered the steps by the back door were gone, replaced by two new Flutterby bushes standing either side of the door in large pots; though there was no breeze, the leaves waved lazily, giving an attractive rippling effect. The chickens had been shut away, the yard had been swept, and the nearby garden had been pruned, plucked, and generally spruced up, although Harry, who liked it in its overgrown state, thought that it looked rather forlorn without its usual contingent of capering gnomes.**

The Weasley's, and anyone who has ever been to The Burrow, gaped at the cleanliness of their home.

"Our house!" George exclaimed

"What happened to our house?" Bill gaped and Fred glared at him.

"Hey! That was my line!" Bill rolled his eyes

**He had lost track of how many security enchantments had been placed upon the Burrow by both the Order and the Ministry; all he knew was that it was no longer possible for anybody to travel by magic directly into the place. Mr. Weasley had therefore gone to meet the Delacours on top of a nearby hill, where they were to arrive by Portkey. The first sound of their approach was an unusually high-pitched laugh, which turned out to be coming from Mr. Weasley, who appeared at the gate moments later, laden with luggage and leading a beautiful blonde woman in long, leaf green robes, who could be Fleur's mother.**

**"Maman!" cried Fleur, rushing forward to embrace her. "Papa!"**

**Monsieur Delacour was nowhere near as attractive as his wife; he was a head shorter and extremely plumb, with a little, pointed black beard. However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing towards Mrs. Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.**

**"You 'ave been so much trouble," he said in a deep voice. "Fleur tells us you 'ave been working very 'ard."**

**"Oh, it's been nothing, nothing!" trilled Mrs. Weasley. "No trouble at all!"**

"Yeah right."

**Ron relieved his feelings by aiming a kick at a gnome who was peering out from behind one of the new Flutterby bushes.**

"Nice one, Ron." Hermione rolled her eyes at Tonks' comment, but still smiled slightly.

**"Dear lady!" said Monsieur Delacour, still holding Mrs. Weasley's hand between his own two plump ones and beaming. "We are most honored at the approaching union of our two families! Let me present my wife, Apolline."**

**Madame Delacour glided forward and stooped to kiss Mrs. Weasley too.**

**"Enchant'e," she said. "Your 'usband 'as been telling us such amusing stories!"**

Mrs. Weasley glared at her husband, who grinned sheepishly.

**Mr. Weasley gave a maniacal laugh; Mrs. Weasley threw him a look, upon which he became immediately silent and assumed an expression appropriate to the sickbed of a close friend.**

The room roared with laughter.

"Brilliant, dad." Ron snorted

**"And, of course, you 'ave met my leetle daughter, Gabrielle!" said Monsieur Delacour. Gabrielle was Fleur in miniature; eleven years old, with waist-length hair of pure, silvery blonde, she gave Mrs. Weasley a dazzling smile and hugged her, then threw Harry a glowing look, batting her eyelashes. Ginny cleared her throat loudly.**

**"Well, come in, do!" said Mrs. Weasley brightly, and she ushered the Delacours into the house, with many "No, please!"s and "After you!'s and "Not at all!'s.**

**The Delacours, it soon transpired, were helpful, pleasant guests. They were pleased with everything and keen to assist with the preparations for the wedding. Monsieur Delacour pronounced everything from the seating plan to the bridesmaids' shoes "Charmant!" Madame Delacour was most accomplished at household spells and had the oven properly cleaned in a trice; Gabrielle followed her elder sister around, trying to assist in any way she could and jabbering away in rapid French.**

**On the downside, the Burrow was not built to accommodate so many people. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were now sleeping in the sitting room, having shouted down Monsieur and Madame Delacour's protests and insisted they take their bedroom. Gabrielle was sleeping with Fleur in Percy's old room, and Bill would be sharing with Charlie, his best man, once Charlie arrived from Romania. Opportunities to make plans together became virtually nonexistent, and it was in desperation that Harry, Ron and Hermione took to volunteering to feed the chickens just to escape the overcrowded house.**

Everyone who lived in the Burrow grimaced at the thought of the overcrowded house. Percy looked down guilt rising in his chest at not going to his older brother's wedding. _I'll just go to the next one. _He thought, not wanting to make that mistake again. He looked at Future Ron and Hermione and saw how they kept glancing at each other. _Seems like it'll be real soon_. He grinned and kept reading.

**"But she still won't leave us alone!" snarled Ron, and their second attempt at a meeting in the yard was foiled by the appearance of Mrs. Weasley carrying a large basket of laundry in her arms.**

"Mum." Ron groaned at his mother, who was currently looking like she agreed with her future tactics.

"Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, "You really need to let us plan."

**"Oh, good, you've fed the chickens," she called as she approached them. "We'd better shut them away again before the men arrive tomorrow... to put up the tent for the wedding," she explained, pausing to lean against the henhouse. She looked exhausted. "Millamant's Magic Marquees... they're very good. Bill's escorting them... You'd better stay inside while they're here, Harry. I must say it does complicate organizing a wedding, having all these security spells around the place."**

**"I'm sorry," said Harry humbly.**

**"Oh, don't be silly, dear!" said Mrs. Weasley at once. "I didn't mean ¨C well, your safety's much more important! Actually, I've been wanting to ask you how you want to celebrate your birthday, Harry. Seventeen, after all, it's an important day..."**

"It is." Lupin nodded, "It's when you become of age."

"Just don't try to summon you glasses." Sirius advised and Future Ron snorted.

"He did, didn't he." Future Hermione whispered to him and he nodded, a grin seeping onto his face.

**"I don't want a fuss," said Harry quickly, envisaging the additional strain this would put on them all. "Really, Mrs. Weasley, just a normal dinner would be fine... It's the day before the wedding..."**

**"Oh, well, if you're sure, dear. I'll invite Remus and Tonks, shall I? And how about Hagrid?"**

**"That'd be great," said Harry. "But please, don't go to loads of trouble."**

**"Not at all, not at all... It's no trouble..."**

**She looked at him, a long, searching look, then smiled a little sadly, straightened up, and walked away. Harry watched as she waved her wand near the washing line, and the damp clothes rose into the air to hang themselves up, and suddenly he felt a great wave of remorse for the inconvenience and the pain he was giving her.**

"It's really no trouble, dear." Harry still looked slightly guilty.

"I better get going." Kingsley said and all the adults who weren't residing at Grimmauld Place nodded.

"Thank you for dinner, Molly." Lupin said as he exited the room after McGonagall.

"See you tomorrow!" Tonks grinned, following Lupin.

"I think it's time you all go to bed." Mrs. Weasley said to the Weasley kids, Harry, and Hermione. They all grumbled and left the room.

"Night little brother." Fred winked at Ron then the Twins disaperated to their room.

"Come on." Future Hermione whispered to Future Ron, seeing the time on the clock, "We have to leave in two hours." They left for the Living room, leaving the adults in the kitchen to talk.

*The Living Room*

Future Hermione kissed Future Ron.

"What was that for?" He grinned

"For comforting me. I couldn't do it back at the Burrow so I'm doing it now." They sat down on one of the couches.

"So how in Merlin's name are we going to disguise ourselves?"

"Well," Future Hermione trailed off in thought and was brought back when he brushed her cheek with his finger. "I was thinking that you can be Dragomir Despard and I could be a Ministry Official showing you around Hogwarts. I mean, I still have Mafalda Hopkirk's outfit from when we broke in and you were good with the foreign accent so we could sell it if we ran into a teacher."

"That's brilliant!" Future Ron exclaimed and they got to work. Future Hermione was separating Ron's black outfit from her Bellatrix one. **(A/N: Imagine the outfits from DH part 2 and the Mafalda Hopkirk outfit from part 1)**

"They're still wet." She chuckled and cast a drying charm on them and shoved away her Bellatrix dress.

"They reek too." He said and she muttered the freshening charm.

"Here." She shoved the robes at Future Ron and was fumbling with something inside her bag, "Found it!" She exclaimed victoriously, holding up the jacket, skirt, and blouse.

"So what are we going to do when we get to Hogwarts?" Future Ron asked

"Well…"

**A/N: Cliffhanger! You'll see throughout the story why I have the outfits from movie scenes, just wait! I know this chapter isn't the best but I've been a little bit stressed out this summer and I had some really tough tests within the last month (An AP test, a Spanish final, and a few End of Course exams to name a few). I think I really needed a break from writing to focus on memorizing a ton of stuff I barely knew. Anyways, I'm definitely NOT giving up on this story and my other story so just hold on! I'm dedicated to finish my two stories no matter how long it takes! If anyone has anything that you would like to see in this story, please leave it in a review or PM me! Thanks!**


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